When our tour group arrived in North Korea, I was a bit surprised to learn that in addition to our driver and three guides/minders, we would be accompanied by a cameraman who would be filming our entire trip. At first I thought this was for propaganda purposes (“Tune in tonight at 7pm, dear comrades, to see footage of American Imperialist bowing before the “Great Leader”!) but the actual reason was much less sinister. On our last night in Pyongyang the cameraman showed us some of the footage he shot and informed us that we could purchase DVDs. Of course, I had to buy one. Where else but North Korea do you get a DVD of your entire trip, complete with the government approved narrative and incredibly cheesy music?

After much trial and error (was having a bit of trouble with the audio track), I finally managed to rip the DVD and cut some footage from it. For those of you who have complained that I’m a biased westerner (yes, I’ve already received e-mails insinuating as much) I’m happy to bring a bit of balance to my narrative of the trip by presenting the North Korean version. Over the next few months I’ll be posting more footage from this DVD. The footage from the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ)/Panmunjom is especially interesting.

This first clip is the intro to the DVD and footage from our visit to the Arch of Triumph in Pyongyang (which is basically just us taking lots of photos).

Related posts:

1. North Korea: The Itinerary Theoretically, if all goes according to plan and the North Korean government has approved my visa, this is my trip’s itinerary. I’m especially looking forward to the bowling. Tues 8th Sep AM: Bus from office to airport. PM: Flight JS152 from Beijing to Pyongyang, 13:00 departure, arrive Pyongyang 16:25,...
2. North Korea: The Arch of Triumph (because everything’s bigger in the DPRK) There are a lot of monuments in Pyongyang, and as you soon learn, all revolve around the achievements of Kim Il-Sung. The first monument we visited was the Arch of Triumph. You probably think that this arch looks quite similar to that one in Paris, and you would be...
3. North Korea’s Funniest Home Videos: U.S. Imperialists attempt to eat hot pot When I mentioned that a cameraman followed us around during our tour, filming our entire trip, I wasn’t exaggerating. He even filmed us dining at two restaurants in Pyongyang, which was kind of…weird. I’m guessing that when he went back to the studio at night to edit the footage he...
4. North Korea’s Funniest Home Videos: U.S. Imperialists aboard the USS Pueblo Here is the North Korean Tourism DVD footage of our trip to the USS Pueblo in Pyongyang. In this clip you can hear the narrator describe how the “US armed spy ship Pueblo” was “captured by the heroic Korean People’s Army while committing espionage acts”. You can also see...
5. North Korea: More footage of the Arirang Festival Mass Games Eventually I’ll sit down and write another long article regarding my trip to North Korea, but until then here is more footage of the Arirang Festival Mass Games taken from the North Korean Tourism DVD. The first minute is footage of our tour group watching the games, followed by...