- And you thought I was the crazy short guy.
So North Korea is not exactly known to be run by sane people
but I guarantee you whatever you've heard on the news
is only the tip of the iceberg.
Here are 10 insane but true things about North Korea.
Number 10 is its size and power.
Despite being able to terrify half the planet
with their threats, the country of North Korea
isn't very big at all.
You ever see one of those little dogs that like bark
really loud, like (imitates barking)?
It's like that.
The whole country only takes up
120,538
square kilometers,
barely larger than the state of Pennsylvania,
which is about
119,283
square kilometers.
It ranks 97th on the list of biggest countries.
But when it comes to their standing army,
North Korea has the fourth largest on Earth
with 1.2 million soldiers.
To put that into perspective, literally one in every 25
citizens is an enlisted soldier.
They also have the largest submarine fleet
and special forces in the world.
Of course what the United States along with most other
countries on the planet are most worried about
is the nuclear arsenal North Korea is said to possess.
Now I'm not trying to scare you, but current estimates claim
that he has around 10 plutonium warheads
and 1,000 ballistic missiles that can hit a target
up to around 12,000 kilometers away.
And now that you know that, can we please stop
poking the short man?
Number nine is Kim Jong-il kidnapped filmmakers.
In 1978, two filmmakers, Shin Sang-ok and Choi Eun-hee
were kidnapped in Hong Kong and brought to North Korea.
The pair who were formerly married were taken
six months apart, with Choi serving as bait
for Shin's capture.
After five years of captivity, they were reunited
and forced by Kim Jong-il to make films
that would put North Korea on the map.
Hey, thanks for visiting North Korea.
Or we kidnapped you, same thing.
Hey, listen, you wanna make us a movie?
Given nearly unlimited budgets,
Shin was told to emulate South Korean and Western
blockbusters while still keeping the propaganda flowing.
He and Choi pulled this off pretty well,
even winning an award for one of their films.
Their most famous film was called Pulgasari
and was an obvious knockoff of Godzilla.
The two filmmakers escaped their guards
while visiting Vienna in 1986,
though the North Korean government claims
that they were never prisoners.
They also claim that Kim Jong-il can fly
like a (whistling) bird, so yeah.
Not exactly honest.
Number eight is elections.
It might seem incredibly strange that North Korea
holds elections, but it's actually true.
Every five years, a countrywide election is held,
but with only one name on the ballot.
In this case, Kim Jong-un.
Voters are allowed to cast their ballot for someone else,
but in order to do so, they must scratch off
the leader's name, and you don't wanna do that.
Voter turnout is nearly perfect, with almost every citizen
able to vote and doing so.
And apparently every single one of them selects
the democratic front for the reunification
of the fatherland.
While the North Korean government claims that this is due
to the unanimous loyalty that the people have
for the godly Kim Jong-un, the reality is that voting
is not really anonymous.
What that means is that anyone who scratches out a name
in this show election can be identified
and, uh, (clears throat) dealt with.
Knock, knock, hey, hi there, are you the one
that scratched out our godly leader's name?
Okay, I'm coming in.
Number seven is wealth and corruption.
Apparently it pays to be all powerful.
According to Chosun Ilbo, a South Korean news organization,
Kim Jong-un is worth nearly $5 billion.
While his people starve and bodies pile up every day,
the North Korean leader is raking in money
from not only the legal sources a politician has,
but some very illegal ones, too, such as counterfeiting,
weapons dealing, and the sale of narcotics and other drugs.
Citizens go hungry, but the leader eats the finest
imported cheeses and drinks expensive champagne.
They lose power and live in ruined buildings
while he has his own island and lives alone
in a giant palace.
Every year a paper is published outlining the nations
that are the most evil.
Guess which one tops that list.
Known as the Corruption Perceptions Index,
the list placed North Korea near the top
with Somalia and Afghanistan.
Number six is Kim Il-sung's legacy.
Although there is obviously a leader calling the shots
in North Korea, he's not seen as the true leader.
That title is eternally held by his grandfather
Kim Il-sung, despite the fact that he's quite dead
and Kim Jong-un is still very much alive.
Il-sung was the founder of the Democratic People's Republic
of Korea and was the Communist leader from 1948
until his death on July 8th, 1994.
North Korea still recognizes him as their sitting president
and the government still operates under the rules created
while the late supreme leader was alive,
making it the world's only necrocracy.
Yeah, that's right, necrocracy.
You might as well have a zombie running the country.
As of today, a number of things are named after him,
including stadiums, a university, and at least one bridge.
But just to remind the citizens of North Korea
who is in charge, there are literally
34,000 statues of Kim Il-sung,
one for every 750 people.
Number five is the education system.
The education system in North Korea
is much like those in other countries.
However, it comes with a few bizarre rules.
No, it's not like every teacher has to learn the accordion
or something, not...
They do?
In the 1990s, the government decided that all teachers
across the country had to learn to play the accordion
if they wished to continue educating young minds.
Logic, clearly logic, folks.
Meanwhile, the parents of those young minds
were expected to provide not only pens and paper,
but the students' desks, chairs, and building materials
which students use to produce goods for the government.
As if that wasn't enough, they're also required
to give cash installments to cover heating fuel
for the classroom.
In an effort to keep their children from doing hard labor
at school, parents often keep them home
or bribe their teachers, which can be dangerous.
But despite this, North Korea claims to have a literacy rate
of 100%.
Of course they do, everything's fine.
Everything's just fine, everything's on fire.
Number four is the economy.
North Korea's threats and military power
leave many feeling intimidated.
But when it comes to their own people, the greatest fear
is mostly living from one day to the next.
And that's because around half of the population
lives in extreme poverty.
Nearly 12 million citizens
live without basic human requirements for survival,
many of them completely without heat to warm themselves
or cook their food.
Millions of them survive on just corn or kimchi,
which is made from salted and fermented vegetables.
The annual gross domestic product or GDP per capita
ranks at 197th in the world
and is around only $1,800.
Even keeping the lights on is difficult,
as the entire country's power grid is in severe disrepair,
leaving millions without power for hours at a time.
Experts believe that a rebellion could occur
in the near future, fingers crossed.
Number three is Kijong-dong.
(chuckles) Dong.
Okay, look, I'm sorry, I had to laugh at some point.
This is a serious video.
With electricity being as scarce as it is in North Korea,
you'd think their government would be as sparing
as possible with it, but instead, they waste
a huge amount of it on unsuccessful attempts
to draw defectors from South Korea.
That attempt includes Kijong-dong, a town constructed
near the Korean border simply to make it look
like things were better in the North.
Kijong-dong, or Peace Village, was built in the 1950s
and features brightly painted multistory buildings
that the North Korean government claims
houses 200 families who simply love it there.
But of course a closer look reveals
that there are no windows or even interior rooms
within the concrete shells, and the only people
living there are maintenance crews and soldiers.
Most of the world now calls this fake town
Propaganda Village, but not North Korea, they would
affectionately call it Happy Happy Sunshine Village.
Number two are the punishments are insane.
With a government as corrupt as North Korea's,
it's no wonder their laws are so ridiculous.
It's even illegal to watch South Korean movies
or be a Christian.
In fact, in November of 2013, women and children
were dragged into a sports stadium and forced to watch
as 80 people allegedly guilty of those two ridiculous crimes
were publicly executed via machine gun fire.
Now that sounds awful, however, they might've
gotten off easy, because those who were not executed
are placed in horrible work camps,
adding to the 200,000 prisoners who are already there.
They're questioned for days
and forced to write false confessions.
But the worst part of the North Korean justice system
is the three generations of punishment rule.
Yeah, get ready for this one.
When a person breaks the law, their parents, grandparents,
and children are often sent to work camps along with them.
Just ridiculous.
And number one are the Kims are gods.
And you thought the way we treated Kim Kardashian
in North America was ridiculous.
Ha, get ready.
As insane as it may sound, the Kims seem to believe
that they possess omnipotent powers
and have a history of trying to convince the people
of North Korea of just that.
Apparently when Kim Jong-il was born,
it was under a double rainbow
and a new star formed in the sky, of course it did.
If you thought that was cool, he was apparently
talking and walking before he was six months old,
never urinated or defecated, and every time his mood
would change, so would the weather.
These, uh, facts are actually taught to children in school
and are part of the official biography of Kim Jong-il
that the North Korean government has released.
His body is embalmed and on display in a glass case
at what's become the country's most popular attraction.
The tour guides even go on about his
incredible godlike powers.
The claims of godliness are to keep the people scared
and clearly are ridiculous.
So that was 10 insane but true things about North Korea
that you probably didn't know, and now you do,
and it's just disturbing.
But if you guys enjoyed this, remember to give it
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Thank you guys for watching, let's pray for these people.
And I will see you in the next video, bye-bye.