How North Korea became the world’s most reclusive country

[Music] this is a map of the Korean Peninsula and right here running through the middle is the demri zone or DMZ it's the world's most heavily fortified border a 248 km belt separating South Korea from its neighbor to the north here along the North Korean side you can see these fortifications thousands of soldiers stand guard to ensure the country remains one of the most isolated on Earth okay you might already know about this part of the Border but there's more North Korea's coastline is also enclosed by electrified fences and there are more than just the

physical barriers North Korea has its own National internet its own film industry and of course its own first family this is how North Korea became the world's most reclusive country [Music] North Korea is one of the last remnants of the Cold War the country is run by a dynastic stalinist dictatorship focused on maintaining National secrecy and doing everything it can to keep its people away from outside information why according to experts it comes down to a simple reason survival yeah so the North Korean uh leadership primarily uh is focused on survival in a hostile World

surrounded by much stronger Neighbors from the outside North Korea is often presented as an odd yet menacing Rogue State a developing story right now North Korea has blown up the inter Korean liaison office North Korea claims it has carried out a successful test of an underwater nuclear capable drone North Korea appears to have made good on its threat to send rubbish over the border to South Korea but experts say much of the country's postering and to focus on its nuclear weapons program despite growing International sanctions has a lot to do with the Kim regime's concerns

about a potential collapse triggered either by outside forces [Music] or by internal matters that's been the case for almost as long as the Quasi monarchical regime has existed since its establishment in 1948 North Korea has been ruled by three generations of the Kim family the Dynasty's founder was Kim Elon his son Kim Kim Jong Il took the Reigns next followed by grandson Kim Jong-un who's currently in charge it was Kims who initially set North Korea on the path to shutting out much of the world he had been groomed for leadership by the former Soviet Union

and at first set up a similar government so everything looked like pretty much Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin uh very strict control censorship and isolation control over foreign trips everything you would expect but North Korea system would soon split off to develop into its own homegrown ideology J the J chair Manifesto published in 1982 by Kim Jong-il stresses that a true socialist Revolution can only be achieved via self-reliance be politically economically or militarily du further outlines the need for a single vanguardist leader and Defiance towards foreign ideas ju ideology soon dominated North Korean political thought

and Society although the country has been and remains to this day economically dependent on foreign support Kim further distan his regime from China and the Soviet Union by installing a father toson type of succession unlike any other communist leader before him kimon decided to transfer power to his son uh partially because he saw how Joseph Stalin Heritage was overthrown and over written by his Joseph Stalin's for former disciples and lieutenants kimson who saw it he decided that he would go a different way what is the problem there well communist ideology rails against aristocracy monarchy father

to son succession and Privileges and so on so there's a contradiction there in effect the stalinist country would transform itself into a reclusive state where foreign ideas were frowned upon traditional culture encouraged and Ultra nationalism and loyalty to the Kims exalted why the shift away from Soviet style policies kimlong and his successor Kim Jong Il were obsessed with something that remains a key facet of world view of North Korean leaders the end of their regime today that world view is reflected in moments like this when a court sentenced two teens to hard labor for watching

band's kdramas but the impact of pyongyang's focus and ideology goes far deeper than Banning South Korean television shows the Workers Party dominates everyday life it's s organizations there are leagues there are party Affiliated groups even for children and the intent I believe is to systematically indoctrinate the entire North koreem population that the supreme leader again is a demig God and the work's party takes care of all North Korean people and demands in return absolute loyalty but why does the North's concern about South Korean culture Cal influence lead to a push to control its population the

fact that a rich prosperous Pleasant Korean State exists namely South Korea this is a long-term existential threat for the Kim Dynasty the Pyongyang regime may also be wary of ending up like East Germany which was swallowed up by West Germany after communist rule ended in 1989 South Korea's liberal economic and political system remains an alternative to the Kim regime and offers a considerably higher average standard of living according to statistics Korea a South Korean government agency analysts Say by sealing its population away from any contacts with the outside world especially with South Korea the regime

May hope to avoid internal unrest there all ways a threat of instability a threat a danger that any instab outbreak of instability in North Korea will provoke uh essentially German style regime collapse it might be good for the average North Korean even though it's open to debate it's not going to be a kind of you know blessing unconditional even for the common people for the elite it's likely to be a disaster and they understand it they have to maintain stability and the best way to maintain stability is to have somebody from the Kim clan in

power but North Korea is not only concerned about an internal collapse the Kim regime also adopted San or a military first policy in the '90s as the Soviet Union fell he was not certain what to do when the Communist governments across the globe collapsed in the early 1990s Kim jong-il's solution A system that puts not only his family at the center of North Korean life but also the military an institution presented as the nation's protectors in an increasingly hostile world so he decided to create a system he wanted to create a system which would be

based on the special position of the military if you like he wanted to transform a Communist Party centered dictatorship into military centered [Music] [Music] dictatorship the Army has always been a key pillar of the Kim regime Japan or South Korea these are all states with much larger economies uh and conventionally at least more powerful military initially South Korea was much weaker than North Korea much less so today and much more reliant on the United States for its Security South Korea still reliant on uh the US nuclear umbrella uh but uh in conventional terms the South

Korean military is is probably quite a lot stronger uh than North Korean military now to this day the Korean People's Army is one of the largest armies in the world Fielding 1.3 million active duty soldiers Pyongyang says it spends around5 % of its GDP on the military but experts say the true amount may be more than double it also spent more than half a million US Dollars on its nuclear program in 2022 alone according to the international campaign to abolish nuclear weapons much of the North's propaganda is focused on what it views as a moral

enemy the United States Washington has returned the favor by imposing sanctions on pongyang as well as keeping a sword of dlet hanging over the country after the September 11th 2001 Terror attacks in the US Washington listed North Korea among a collection of Rogue States it hoped to put out of action North Korea is a regime arming with missiles and weapons of mass destruction while starving its citizens States like these and their terrorist allies constitute an AIS of evil arming to threaten the Peace of the world later foreign interventions like us involvement in the war that

toppled Libyan dictator moar Gaddafi in 2011 reportedly fueled the Kim's concerns about collapse unconfirm reports about Gaddafi being captured yes we came we saw he died but the balance shifted in 2006 when the north acquired an ultimate tool of deterrence against foreign military [Music] intervention nuclear weapons the North government thinks that having nuclear weapons will ensure their security and they think that having as many different kinds of Delivery Systems that will allow them to hit the United States South Korea Japan or whoever else may threaten them they think that the more Warheads they build up

the bigger their Arsenal at the more delivery me Delivery Systems they have the more secure they will be but every nuclear test has further alienated North Korea in the eyes of the International Community the United Nations has has adopted resolutions calling for a new round of sanctions after every nuclear [Music] test it has been 76 years and three generations of rulers since North Korea's founding and the country remains one of the most reclusive Nations on Earth are there signs that anything will change people are significantly better informed about the outside world partially because they are

listening to foreign broadcast but Lely because they watch smuggled South Korean videos and many of them maybe up to half million Al together accumulative have been in China there is a growing appetite for better living conditions in North Korea in an apparent bid to solidify his rule Kim has responded by taking inspiration from his powerful communist neighbor China Kim jonon came to power in December 2011 when China was making great success so for him the Communist system was a system which worked very well in China a system which worked very well in Vietnam when not

in no Kim jong-un's government engaged in economic reforms meant to strengthen the country's market economy and eventually turn it into an industrial Powerhouse dozens of residential districts were built in pongyang while a consumerist middle class took shape however as much as Kim wanted to emulate China international sanctions imposed because of the country's nuclear Ambitions stood in the way [Music] the Chang model Kim J wanted to emulate suddenly became essentially unapplicable uh because he wanted to use cheap labor like in China like in Vietnam like in Korea South Korea a long time ago he wanted to

import Ro material and spare parts from overseas to produce finished goods and to export finished goods but it's it's impossible because sanctions are very tough economic reforms were also accompanied by political reforms Lov says the Army's pracy is fading amid a return to a more communist style governance where the party takes a central role Workers Party congresses are held regularly some North Korea Watchers say Kim jong-un's reforms may have helped the regime strengthen itself enough to survive at least another half century but the Supreme Leader's Health also continues to worsen according to Soul spy agency

already experts question what comes next including whether the next Kim family transition will shift power to a daughter instead of a son