I suppose it's inevitable that the truth will always get in the way of pulling off a successful propaganda march.

In 2004 I went to North Korea to make a video. I had little idea about how the trip would turn out, other than it was organized by a group called the Korean Friendship Association. Its leader, Alejandro Cao de Benos, is a megaphone for the North Korean government.

The KFA wants to show Westerners its version of reality in North Korea, which is little more than a Potemkin Village. Alejandro would probably say that I have been brainwashed by CNN for describing North Korea as a Potemkin Village, or for calling North Korea North Korea, instead of the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (or DPRK).

Andrew was in North Korea to do a feature for ABC's 'Nightline'. His story never made it to air because his hotel room was broken into and his tapes were stolen. That is, his North Korean experience was authentic. I'm just glad I was around to capture some of it on video.

There's another documentary that was made of the same trip that is in this video. It's called 'Friends of Kim' and it was made by a Dutch film crew of two ( FriendsOfKim.com ). They've used two pieces of my footage in their video, so I've used two pieces of their footage in my video. Thanks Raph and Hans! You might be interested to compare their video with mine.

Since the International March for Korea's Peace and Reunification in 2004, the KFA has still been organizing trips to North Korea. But they don't let just anyone take video like they did with me anymore. To that extent I'm grateful to the KFA for letting me use my videocamera. I'm also thankful for their crudity, because crudity makes compelling video.


You can watch 'North Korean Junket' at Google Video, but the resolution is low:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1923289236282359958&hl=en

A better quality version can be downloaded with BitTorrent:
http://thepiratebay.org/tor/4202356