this week on Vice we go to North
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Korea the world is
changing now no one knows where it's
going but we'll be there on covering the
news culture and politics that expose
the absurdity of the modern condition so
we about to play a quick pickup game
super casual relaxed this is the world
our this is the world of
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us
we hear advice have' been fascinated by
North Korea for a long time in fact
we've done three documentaries about the
hermit Kingdom all of which have been
harshly critical of the
regime you have to go to the house of
the people the library of the people you
have to see the soccer team of the
people but the one thing that we didn't
do was meet any of the actual people of
North Korea it's not very busy here for
that reason I'm personally never allowed
to go back to the dprk but we wanted to
get inside the country again to see
firsthand how it's fairing under its new
very young and very mysterious leader
Kim Jun one of the biggest challenges in
dealing with North Korea on any level is
that we have virtually no diplomatic
relations with them in fact over the
past 65 plus years only a handful of
Americans have ever met the country's
leaders the most prominent of which was
Secretary of State meline Albright
during a visit to the country when she
brought Kim Jong-il a basketball signed
by Michael Jordan now she did this
because despite his public disdain for
America Kim Jong-il privately loved the
Chicago Bulls his passion for the 90
Bulls was passed on to his son Kim
Jong-un and banking on the Dynasty's
inherent love for basketball we work
through official and back channels to
propose a Goodwill game of basketball
with North Korea's national team if they
accepted we would bring three members of
the Harlem Globe Trotters who are the
most natural ambassadors of Goodwill in
the game and a real live Chicago Bull
much to our surprise it worked the dprk
actually invited our delegates to come
to North Korea and participate in a very
very rare quote unquote foreign Sports
Exchange program the timing however
turned out to be very tricky because in
December of 2012 North Korea launched
the Quang msung three satellite into the
Earth's orbit stirring fears that the
country's missile program could soon be
advanced enough to carry a nuclear
weapon as far as the United States and
just so we didn't forget exactly what
these missiles would be carrying they
conducted a third nuclear test to make
sure we got the
message this of course set the
International Community on edge so in
the midst of heightened tensions and
heated rhetoric we headed to pyang to
see if we could actually engage with the
North Koreans through the cultural
vehicle of
basketball
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the second you land in North Korea you
realize you're no longer in control of
anything isting so we have
to the
motor government minders direct your
every step you're told where to go what
to do and most importantly what to film
and as other westerners have found out
the hard way if you flaunt these
restrictions you could wind up in North
Korean jail one of the worst places on
Earth since our instincts are usually to
shoot the exact opposite of what people
want us to I was more than a bit freaked
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out having the Harlem Globe Trotters
along with us on this trip was extremely
comforting
because they were some of the most
positive guys we'd ever met hey buddy
and I needed that Comfort pretty much
right away because as soon as we entered
the hotel lobby we were welcomed by a
banner celebrating the recent nuclear
task oh God at first we thought the
banner might have been put there for us
but when I opened up the curtains for my
first look at pongyang I saw a long line
of buses leaving the hotel and then I
turned on the
TV
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a bunch of the nuclear scientists from
the February 12th test are staying at
this hotel right now they were brought
here by way of kind of reward some sort
of Celebration uh by the leader so
they're staying here at the same hotel
with us
unsettling so we weren't even there for
a few hours and this International
nuclear controversy with huge
geopolitical ramifications was playing
out in our hotel
lobby recording no he just always has to
hold that out for
practice from the start we were under
very close
supervision they were watching us and
what we were shooting at all times every
day has a schedule and we have a lot of
minders um whose full-time jobs it is to
make sure that one
of to make sure that we stay on the
schedule so Army of people there waiting
for you us you on to the bus we were
always surrounded by guides translators
and
officials many of whom we'd been warned
were actually secret
police
we'd agreed that along with the
exhibition game we'd host a basketball
camp with what we thought would be a
bunch of kids in a high school gym
somewhere instead we were ushered into a
massive 10,000 seat
Stadium oh this is nice we'd also be
working with the best under 18 players
in the country my name is Anthony Blakes
also known as buckets I'm Number 15 with
the world famous Harlem Globe CHS uh
we're going to show you guys some great
things today and I hope hopefully give
you an opportunity to learn something
new as well as uh make some new friends
with us on my whistle first guy
goes hands up hands up go so they have
to compete for the rebound all right
ready go there you go there you go this
is what rebound all about you have to
fight
for go go go go go
oh friendship on you know language
tingle is it okay tingle one 2
3 good
job as we were leaving we spotted North
Korea's most famous basketball player
Rey hun who had come out to watch the
drills R was at one time the tallest man
in basketball he was super excited about
our visit and he gathered us together
for a chat just
me just me and
him country that's known to suffer from
malnutrition and the stunted growth that
goes along with it re is truly an
exception in fact his height actually
attracted the interest of American
Scouts but due to trade sanctions he was
unable to pursue his dreams of playing
in the NBA and although loyal to North
Korea when he was once asked how he felt
about not being able to play in the NBA
he replied I'm not interested in money
or Politics as a sportsman I just want
to
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try
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as one of the trade-offs for allowing us
to visit through this Sports Exchange we
agreed to go on their state sanction
tour and like the beginning of any tour
of North Korea our first stop was an
obligatory visit to the Sun Palace where
the country's last two leaders Li in
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state
North Korea is the last of the
socialist/communist cult of personality
utopian States and much like Stalin in
the Soviet Union or Mao in China their
leaders are not only revered as
political figures but Flatout woried as
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Gods Kim elung was installed by the
Soviets as the first supreme leader in
1948 and in fact he's still president of
the dprk today even though he's been
dead since
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1994 Kim elong was succeeded by his son
Kim Jong-il who inherited his father's
Godlike excellence and he was perfect at
everything Not only was he the greatest
at military strategy and City Planning
but also at film making Furniture Design
and even
animal husbandry when Kim Jong-il died
in 2011 leadership was passed to his son
Kim Jong-un about whom the world knows
very very
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little these State sanction tours of
North Korea tend to be exactly the same
year in year out but because of our
basketball Mission and our documentary
they' created a new hand-tailored
propaganda tour they were going to show
us how great the quality of life in
North Korea really was so instead of
taking us to places is like the most
militarized border on Earth the DMZ they
took us to the North Korean version of
SeaWorld immediately we knew we were
stepping into something completely
different a huge crowd was already
seated and waiting patiently for us to
arrive front row
seats even here we were reminded of
North Korea's nuclear
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prowess
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and interestingly Kim Jong-un was not
just credited as The Mastermind behind
all the missiles and bombs he was also
the choreographer of the dolphin
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show
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not only is Kim Jong-un great with
dolphins he's now personally responsible
for inspecting advising and directing
all aspects of North Korean
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life
Marshall expected this right any machine
we see with a red placard like that yes
yes wow cool are there ever arguments
over who gets to use the Marshall's
equipment they would prefer the machine
that were actually inspected of course
of course I don't even know what this is
called but I'm I'm loving
it what is that that is going on your
face it is a steam test prevents skin
from getting older that one makes you
breast enlargement did you say they did
breast enlargement in here as
well that one helps to enlarge breast
and also it can treat breast canastel oh
wow table tennis is the most popular
sport in dprk no it's not the most
popular sport what what do you think is
the most popular sport I think
basketball oh basketball good well we
came on the right Mission
then at the end of the day we were
invited to indulge ourselves in a North
Korean shopping spring the mall was
clearly a showpiece designed to project
an abundance of Delicacies in a country
that doesn't even have enough food to
feed its
people the store is rammed with Western
Products and a very very attentive sales
staff Coca-Cola Doritos Ruffles anything
you want to get good and
F I'm first thing to go with Coke C I
love Coke do you like Coke yeah me too
it's one of my
favorite paare with the credit
card no no it would have felt just like
a store at home if it weren't for the
fact that a we were the only customers
there and B I couldn't actually buy
anything as we drove back to the hotel I
noticed that in spite of the country's
well documented chronic power shortages
this city was extremely well lit
which made me think were even the lights
part of the tour as well that might
sound crazy but when you look at
satellite photos of the region North
Korea is completely
dark the next morning we were driven to
the international friendship exhibition
and the only cars that we saw on the
long 3-hour drive there were our
own the international friendship
exhibition is basically this Castle
Vault built into the side of a mountain
that holds every gift ever given to the
leadership of North
Korea they had gifts from the likes of
momar Gaddafi Leon RNE the sandinistas
and of course meline Albright whose gift
of a Michael Jordan signed basketball
was the inspiration for this trip a trip
by the way that was getting
progressively weirder as we saw at our
next stops the kiml S University and
Grand people study
house after the prerequisite display of
nuclear and missile technology
they gave us a tour demonstrating North
Korea's openness to the outside world if
you couldn't learn to
drive you the practice of parking a car
you practiceing car over and over over
yeah this is the golden chest to have
conversations with the natives how long
have you been playing basketball okay
well I have been playing basketball
since I was a small child ah I see
I have been playing basketball for about
5 days
now bye goodbye see you
again next they took us to a computer
lab where students were using the
internet and your first thought is okay
this looks like any lab at a university
back home but then it Dawns on you that
it's completely
silent no one is doing anything there is
no typing no mouse clicking nothing we
saw one guy looking at the Google
homepage but he wasn't searching for
anything he was just staring blankly at
the screen the one person we saw there
who actually looked like he knew how to
use a computer was of course the one
person they wanted us to
meet to meet you very nice to meet you
as well sorry to disturb you while
you're working
actually I was looking for my papers
which are published in there and
journals oh this is about strength
Theory this is done in collaboration
with some some foreign scientist in
Europe oh wow yeah that's
great considering North Korea's
reputation for complete and total
suppression of information this stop was
clearly designed to convince us that
they had access to the internet just
like the rest of the world which we knew
wasn't true and that left left us
wondering was anything we were seeing
real it felt like we were walking
through a real live Truman Show created
just for
us everywhere we went and everything we
saw was constructed to convey the exact
opposite of what we know about North
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Korea I honestly felt like I was losing
my
mind but nothing could have prepared us
for what was about to happen
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next
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yeah
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w
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so we're here just about to play a quick
pickup game super casual really relaxed
uh with a few Harlem glob Trotters and
bunch North Koreans and myself uh as
Dennis Rodman and Kim Jung
watch I became Captain you are white and
red I take this's captain and you will
you will be two behind him and then you
can uh if he pick one player then you
can give one by hand out I'm the
equipment manager yeah yeah
okay we picked team's playground style
so each team had both Americans and
North
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Korean
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let's do it right team on three 1 2
3 I'm
started about to get done on
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play
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for
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see
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this
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after the halftime show the Globe
Trotters went out and did what they do
best
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then in the fourth quarter the game got
really intense and actually started to
get
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go go go shoot it shoot
it with no overtime allowed the game
actually ended in a
Time beautiful right there make a
dramatic for our F visit here before we
even knew what was going on Dennis was
standing and giving a spe uh first of
all I would like to say thank
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you you guys have been very very kind to
me and to my uh Compadres from America
and one thing I want to say I'm going to
cut this really
short I'm very very privileged to be
here and for you guys to accept us as
one of you is an
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honor I'm sorry that uh uh my country
and your
country are
not on good
terms but for
me and the country you have a friend for
life
sir thank you you have a friend for
life
we were in a complete and total days the
two hours of screaming and emotion the
tie game at the final buzzer and of
course the surprise visit by by Kim
Jong-un it was truly a surreal
experience all of a sudden we were
ushered off the court and into the
locker room and told to change right
away we have very important schedule so
we have to be very much hurry okay right
now right now right now we go out we
were bust across the city but no one
knew where we were going no one not even
our minders we were told to leave our
cameras behind and brought into this
large marble building and escorted
through a ton of security and then we
turn the corner to see Kim
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Jong-un there we were face to face with
Kim Jong-un for a dinner celebration and
with that we were somehow the first
Americans to meet North Korea's new
leader
having him on the sidelines for the game
was one thing but standing right beside
him was completely and totally insane it
was like being in an alternate universe
so here's what happened at first
introductory speeches were given the
theme of which was pretty much drink
then the curtains went up and out came
this all girl band dressed in white with
electric violins and they inexplicably
play the theme from
rotten and then things started to get
really crazy at one point Dennis took
the Bic and sang my way while our
interpreter played the sex then they
pointed at me and it was my turn to
toast so I thanked Kim Jong-un for his
hospitality and said that we'd like to
return the favor if he ever wanted to
come to America and have dinner with us
which thankfully got a big
laugh clearly the booze loosened
everyone up what we kept hearing from
these ministers party officials and
nuclear negotiators and then even from
Kim Jong-un himself was that they hoped
our visit would be able to reduce some
of the psychological barriers between
the US and North Korea they even went on
to claim that we'd made history now
that's a pretty bold statement but it is
in fact historic in the years since the
Korean War North Korean and American
athletes have competed against each
other on a handful of occasions but
they'd never played on the same team and
that sentiment of collaboration was
echoed by Kim Jong-un when he gave the
final Toast of the
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night
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so you've got the average North Korean
people who are taught from birth that
America is this evil Imperial power
hellbent on their destruction waking up
the next day to see their dear leader
AKA God hanging out with a bunch of
Americans saying he hopes that we can
all get
along now of course it's possible that's
just more propaganda but we did start to
think that maybe just maybe we may have
had at least some
impact they didn't have we realized that
bringing a crew of basketball players to
North Korea isn't going to lead to the
country dismantling its nuclear program
shutting down its labor camps or even
toning down its anti-American rhetoric
but during our time there we did
accomplish something we just uh stopped
buses the first time we've been able to
do that this way this way just found a
COR on the side of the street and we're
actually able to stop at it for the glob
Trotters they're going to see if they
can get involved and it's actually
really awesome to see come right
come all right save yourself you got to
do it sometime through basketball we
managed to bridge The Divide between our
countries open a dialogue and make a
connection with real
people if only for a moment do we like
to try a
spin
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everything
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else
thank you thank
amazing it was great it was amazing one
little kid just said Welcome to our
country bye bye bye bye bye
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bye
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full mountains of ice are just falling
into the
sea we're in for trouble
indeed this is where the Soviets tested
all their weapons this is the epicenter
of a nuclear bomb the last 6 months you
have 9,000
IED that's an
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IED once you get someone in they can
never leave even police helicopters
don't dare fly over here cuz two years
ago one was shot down by an
anti-aircraft gun fun place to
live okay let's get out of
here