What's the hottest items in the Jangmadang?
Wow you can see a huge social class gap here!
NORTH KOREA IS ALL ABOUT SOCIAL CLASS
Hello everyone, I’m Jun Hyeok Kim from Pyongyang
Hello. My name is Noel Kim
and I’m from Onsong in North Hamgyong province, North Korea
I’m from the countryside
I’m Chanee Park from Suwon, South Korea
Today we’ll talk about the drama
everyone is talking about
Crash Landing on You
With millennials from North and South Korea
we'll review the drama and share our opinions
and discuss how accurately they depicted North Korea
You can find my name on the closing credits of this drama
Really?
Yes I was one of the production consultants
Are you bragging?
Is it bragging?
There’s a scene in the Jangmadang market
a North Korean merchant lifts up the curtain and
and reveals a whole collection of South Korean goods
Do they really like South Korean stuff?
Oh they love it
They go crazy for it
What’s the hottest item in the Jangmadang market?
Cosmetics!
One of my father's friend brought me smuggled cosmetics from China
and it was from the brand “Man holding flowers”
What’s that?
(sings the song commercial of the cosmetics company)
Ah it rings a bell
I was thinking…It came from China
but why does it have Korean characters on it?
Then I tried it and it was so moisturizing
If you put on makeup before you become an adult,
you will get scolded from the elders
so I tried not to do it
but I couldn’t help but put wear makeup when my mom was not around
And then I bragged to my friends saying “I’ve put on ‘Man holding flowers’.”
What about you Junhyeok?
Did you ever go to the Jangmadang?
I did go
but I didn’t go there to buy anything
I was more there for the food
for vendors that sold good ‘rice with fake meat’
Since I was a student, food was what I was looking for
like how South Koreans go to street food markets to get dukkbokki
Fake meat?
Do you know what it is?
Nope
One thing I wish the drama shed more light on
is North Korean foods like Dububab and fake meat witth rice
Yeah I agree
What’s that?
Fake meat refers to plant-based meat
Oh you should have brought them as props
They are so good
Jeez
They are so good
So it’d be great for vegetarians..
Yeah it’s totally for them
They can go to eat…
(What are you talking about? Where would they’d go?)
And so?
Have you been to department stores?
I am so curious
The Pyongyang department store?
Wow you can see the huge social class gap so clearly here!
Haha social class
I never … (have been to department store)
NORTH KOREA IS ALL ABOUT SOCIAL CLASS
I am so curious to know if there are really department stores
Of course there is
Deasung, Nakyon, Pyungyang Jaeil department stores...
There are loads of them
So amongst a couple department scenes,
having a casual conversation with foreigners while shopping is a bit exaggerated
Are there many foreigners?
There are many foreign tourists in Pyongyang
especially Chineses and Europeans
North Korea's tourist industry is surging
But department stores are basically for the elites of Pyongyang
You can really see Gucci and Chanel in the show window
There’s even Montblanc
Are those brands really popular in North Korea? Like Gucci and Chanel?
Everybody knows Gucci and Chanel.
Wow Chanel made it there
Recently a department opened in Gwanggyo, Suwon
and people were dying to know whether there will be a Chanel store or not
Because there's a saying that Chanel would never open a store in the Gyeong area
Then CGV IMAX was set to come in
Well it’s becoming a rich town?
Becoming?
Are you looking down Gwanggyo?
So Chanel ended up not opening a store
Well one thing I do want to make it clear is
it's not like Chanel itself opened a store in North Korea
Don Ju brought them from China and
re-sell them in the department in Pyongyang
and price it twice as much
People still buy them
because there are only limited ways to release their capitalistic desires
Don Ju?
Don Ju is a relatively new concept
It refers to people with new money
Oh new money?
Yeah the saying
What about you Junhyeok?
Did people refer to you as the son of who and who?
Well yes
My father worked at a household name company and
also ran businesses like hotels and boat restaurants
Hotels where Junghyeok Lee and Seri Yoon stayed in the drama…
I am also curious because I’ve never been to Pyongyang
Are rooms in those hotels really being tapped?
Yes, there are rooms with monitors
Hotels are clean and decent
Of course it’s not in line with our standards
like the Four Seasons or anything
Do those buildings look like Hanok?
No, they look like buildings from the USSR
Very classical
You feel like you are in East Europe
I’ve never met foreigners in North Korea
Well we do have motels but they are...
Illegal
Well everything is illegal in North Korea
It's not easy to bring up a different topic
1...2...3
There’s a scene where Seri wanted to take a shower
but there isn't unlimited warm water
so she made a steam shower with plastic sheets
Do people really take baths like that?
That’s how I took a bath basically my whole life
especially in the winters when water is scarce
So for example if we have water from 7-8am in the morning,
we’ll store it in the big clay jar
and use it over the course of day
But water easily becomes cold in the winter
so we put plastic sheets over the tub so keep it warm
I used to do that all the time
It's a legit steam shower
Well yes
So I became reminiscent of my childhood during that scene
That’s how I really took shower when I was young
My mom used to wash me inside that thing
He’s from Kim Il-sung University
Huh? He IS an elite?
You can think...Junhyeok is Joonhyeok
Sorry I can't do that
Be quiet