The Hermit Kingdom | VICE on HBO

Summary

In a surreal, eye-opening journey, VICE News visits the enigmatic North Korea, known as the Hermit Kingdom. Accompanied by members of the Harlem Globetrotters and Chicago Bulls legend Dennis Rodman, the team attempts to bridge cultural divides through basketball. Despite the strict control by government minders and propagandized tours showcasing a curated image of North Korean life, the experience culminates in an unexpected face-to-face meeting with the country's mysterious leader, Kim Jong-un. This bizarre encounter underscores both the isolation and the potential for engagement with one of the world's most secretive nations.

Highlights

• Arriving in North Korea with the Harlem Globetrotters was both comforting and surreal. 🏀
• Government minders controlled each step, dictating what could be seen and filmed. 🎥
• An unexpected face-to-face meeting with Kim Jong-un highlighted the trip. 👀
• Dramatic contrasts were drawn between state portrayals and reality. 🎭
• The power of sports highlighted as a unique diplomatic tool in bridging divides. 🌉

Key Takeaways

• VICE News visits North Korea to explore its cultural and political landscape through basketball. 🏀
• The trip features an unusual encounter with North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un. 👀
• The use of basketball as a cultural bridge highlights unique diplomatic avenues. 🌉
• The experience reveals highly choreographed portrayals of North Korean life. 🎭
• Despite strict censorship, glimpses of everyday life and rare engagements emerge. 🌍

Overview

The VICE News team embarks on an intriguing journey into North Korea, the secluded Hermit Kingdom, known for its strict regime and mysterious aura. They aim to explore the cultural and political nuances of the nation through a surprising medium: basketball. Accompanied by Harlem Globetrotters and Dennis Rodman, they seek to engage with the North Korean people, despite the regime's historically harsh stance against outsiders.

Throughout their visit, the government tightly controls their interactions, dictating every action through meticulously planned tours and a curated portrayal of societal life. The team faces the unnerving reality of blatant propaganda, observing staged displays that hardly mask the country's underlying struggles with poverty and suppression.

In an unexpected twist, the journey concludes with a personal interaction with Kim Jong-un, providing a rare glimpse into one of the world's most secretive leaderships. This meeting underscores the theme of cultural exchange and possibility, using sports as a bridge to cross political chasms and foster dialogue in one of the world's last standing isolated regimes.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 03:00: Introduction to the Hermit Kingdom In this chapter, Vice introduces the theme of the week, which focuses on North Korea, often referred to as the 'Hermit Kingdom' due to its isolation from the rest of the world. The introduction sets the stage for an exploration of North Korea, hinting at exclusive insights the documentary will provide into this enigmatic nation. The audience can expect a deep dive into the culture, politics, and the social environment of North Korea as captured by Vice's investigative journalism.
• 03:00 - 07:00: The Basketball Diplomacy Proposal The chapter titled 'The Basketball Diplomacy Proposal' seems to encompass the themes of news, culture, and politics, focusing on the unpredictable nature of the current world. It transitions into a lighter, more informal segment, likened to a casual basketball pickup game, possibly serving as a metaphor for the adeptness and situational fluidity required in modern global affairs. Additionally, the applause signifies an acknowledgment of the efforts or the entertaining aspect of this endeavor.
• 07:00 - 11:00: Arrival in North Korea The chapter explores the fascination with North Korea and the past critical documentaries made about the regime. Despite this, a gap remains as the filmmakers have not directly interacted with the ordinary people of North Korea. The focus of the visit involves seeing state-controlled institutions and activities like the house of the people, library, and soccer team, highlighting the controlled nature of what outsiders are allowed to see. There is a personal note of restriction reflecting the limited personal interactions with locals, indicating a sense of artificiality in the experience.
• 11:00 - 20:00: The Basketball Camp and State Sanctioned Tour The chapter discusses the intrigue and challenges of engaging with North Korea, particularly under its new leader, Kim Jong-un. The narrative highlights the limited diplomatic relations between North Korea and other nations, noting the rarity of interactions with its leadership. Reference is made to former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, one of the few prominent Americans who has met with North Korean leaders during a diplomatic visit. The chapter sets the stage for exploring North Korea's current state and leadership.
• 20:00 - 27:00: The Pick-Up Game The chapter titled 'The Pick-Up Game' discusses a diplomatic gesture involving basketball that was aimed at North Korean leaders. Despite Kim Jong-il's public disdain for the United States, he had a private affection for the Chicago Bulls, a passion he passed on to his son, Kim Jong-un. Utilizing this inroad, officials suggested arranging a goodwill basketball game with the North Korean national team involving members of the Harlem Globetrotters.
• 27:00 - 32:00: Unexpected Dinner with Kim Jong-un A group of delegates is surprisingly invited to North Korea to participate in a rare foreign sports exchange program involving a Chicago Bull. This invitation comes amidst tense global relations following North Korea's launch of the Kwangmyongsong-3 satellite in December 2012, which raised concerns about their potential advancements in missile technology capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
• 32:00 - 39:00: Dinner Celebration and Conversations The chapter "Dinner Celebration and Conversations" seems to cover geopolitical tensions between the United States and North Korea, particularly focusing on North Korea's missile and nuclear tests. These actions caused international concern. Amidst this backdrop, there's an attempt to engage diplomatically with North Korea using basketball as a cultural exchange tool during heightened tensions.
• 39:00 - 45:00: Reflection on the Historic Visit The chapter 'Reflection on the Historic Visit' describes the experience of entering North Korea, emphasizing the lack of personal control. Upon arrival, visitors are closely monitored by government minders who dictate every action and decision, including the places to visit, actions to take, and footage to capture. The text highlights the strict restrictions enforced by the North Korean authorities, warning that disobedience can lead to severe consequences, as experienced by some westerners in the past.
• 45:00 - 50:30: Conclusion The chapter, titled 'Conclusion,' discusses intense and challenging experiences, referencing a Korean jail as one of the worst places imaginable. Amidst these daunting circumstances, the presence of the Harlem Globe Trotters is highlighted as a source of significant comfort and reassurance during the trip.

The Hermit Kingdom | VICE on HBO Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 this week on Vice we go to North [Applause] [Music] Korea the world is
• 00:30 - 01:00 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 [Applause] us
• 01:00 - 01:30 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
• 01:30 - 02:00 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
• 02:00 - 02:30 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
• 02:30 - 03:00 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
• 03:00 - 03:30 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
• 03:30 - 04:00 [Music] 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
• 04:00 - 04:30 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 [Music] out having the Harlem Globe Trotters along with us on this trip was extremely comforting
• 04:30 - 05:00 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
• 05:00 - 05:30 [Music] [Music] [Music] a bunch of the nuclear scientists from the February 12th test are staying at this hotel right now they were brought
• 05:30 - 06:00 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
• 06:00 - 06:30 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
• 06:30 - 07:00 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
• 07:00 - 07:30 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
• 07:30 - 08:00 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
• 08:00 - 08:30 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 [Music] try
• 08:30 - 09:00 [Music] 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 [Music] state
• 09:00 - 09:30 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 [Music] 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
• 09:30 - 10:00 [Music] 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
• 10:00 - 10:30 in 2011 leadership was passed to his son Kim Jong-un about whom the world knows very very [Music] 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
• 10:30 - 11:00 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 [Music] prowess [Music]
• 11:00 - 11:30 [Applause] 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 [Music] show
• 11:30 - 12:00 [Music] not only is Kim Jong-un great with dolphins he's now personally responsible for inspecting advising and directing all aspects of North Korean [Music] [Music] life
• 12:00 - 12:30 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
• 12:30 - 13:00 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
• 13:00 - 13:30 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
• 13:30 - 14:00 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
• 14:00 - 14:30 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
• 14:30 - 15:00 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
• 15:00 - 15:30 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
• 15:30 - 16:00 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
• 16:00 - 16:30 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
• 16:30 - 17:00 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
• 17:00 - 17:30 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 [Music] [Music] Korea I honestly felt like I was losing my
• 17:30 - 18:00 mind but nothing could have prepared us for what was about to happen [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] next
• 18:00 - 18:30 [Applause] [Applause] yeah
• 18:30 - 19:00 [Applause] w [Applause]
• 19:00 - 19:30 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
• 19:30 - 20:00 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 [Applause] Korean [Applause]
• 20:00 - 20:30 let's do it right team on three 1 2 3 I'm started about to get done on [Applause] play [Applause]
• 20:30 - 21:00 [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] for
• 21:00 - 21:30 [Applause] [Music] [Applause] see [Music] this
• 21:30 - 22:00 [Music] after the halftime show the Globe Trotters went out and did what they do best
• 22:00 - 22:30 [Music] then in the fourth quarter the game got really intense and actually started to get [Applause] [Music]
• 22:30 - 23:00 [Applause] 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
• 23:00 - 23:30 [Applause] 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
• 23:30 - 24:00 [Applause] 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
• 24:00 - 24:30 life sir thank you you have a friend for life
• 24:30 - 25:00 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
• 25:00 - 25:30 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
• 25:30 - 26:00 [Music] [Music] 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
• 26:00 - 26:30 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
• 26:30 - 27:00 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
• 27:00 - 27:30 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 [Music] night
• 27:30 - 28:00 [Music] 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
• 28:00 - 28:30 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
• 28:30 - 29:00 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 [Music] [Applause]
• 29:00 - 29:30 [Music] everything [Music] else thank you thank
• 29:30 - 30:00 amazing it was great it was amazing one little kid just said Welcome to our country bye bye bye bye bye [Music] [Applause] bye [Music]
• 30:00 - 30:30 [Applause] [Music] full mountains of ice are just falling into the sea we're in for trouble indeed this is where the Soviets tested
• 30:30 - 31:00 all their weapons this is the epicenter of a nuclear bomb the last 6 months you have 9,000 IED that's an [Music] 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
• 31:00 - 31:30 live okay let's get out of here