North Korea has come up with a new way to bring cold hard cash into its isolated country: export North Korean workers to slave away in the Siberian forest (often without telling them they're no longer in North Korea). We set out to investigate these camps and almost landed ourselves in quite a bit of trouble.
On his way to uncover labor camps setup by North Korea as a way to bring in hard currency for their impoverished nation, Shane Smith gets re-accustomed with handling Russian alcoholics aboard the Trans-Siberian railway.
After many days on trains Shane arrives in Tynda but has to dodge the Russian secret police. After sidestepping the authorities and boarding a train to the middle of nowhere Shane arrives at a North Korean labor camp.
VICE co-founder Shane Smith finds his way into a labor camp established by North Korea - in the heart of Siberia.
Accompanied by the former chief of police Shane and Simon break into a disbanded North Korean labor camp to explore the propaganda and the "Laboratory of Kim Jong Il". On their way out with their arms full of "memorabilia" Shane and Simon fear that they've been caught but end up being introduced to a real North Korean labor worker by two Russian scrap metal dealers.
Accompanied by the former chief of police Shane and Simon break into a disbanded North Korean labor camp to explore the propaganda and the "Laboratory of Kim Jong Il". On their way out with their arms full of "memorabilia" Shane and Simon fear that they've been caught but end up being introduced to a real North Korean labor worker by two Russian scrap metal dealers.
Shane and Simon head off to Tataul and link up with a member of the local mafia known as "The Fish".
From there they drive out into the forest and into an active North Korean labor camp in the middle of Siberia where they meet North Korean workers who inadvertently admit that living conditions back in their homeland were tough- something that would never of be mentioned back in their police-state.
From there they drive out into the forest and into an active North Korean labor camp in the middle of Siberia where they meet North Korean workers who inadvertently admit that living conditions back in their homeland were tough- something that would never of be mentioned back in their police-state.
Shane and Simon are introduced to more North Korean workers by their gold-teethed guide. Here they find out that many workers are being stationed in the camps for upto 10 years but the conversation halts when the managers or the logging camp arrive.
The FSB (Russian secret police), North Korean secret police and the local militia all decide to find out what Shane has been getting upto, so the only logical thing to do is make a run for the border.
Subscribe for videos that are actually good: http://bit.ly/Subscribe-to-VICE
Check out our full video catalog: http://www.youtube.com/user/vice/videos
Videos, daily editorial and more: http://vice.com
Like VICE on Facebook: http://fb.com/vice
Follow VICE on Twitter: http://twitter.com/vice
Read our tumblr: http://vicemag.tumblr.com
Check out our full video catalog: http://www.youtube.com/user/vice/videos
Videos, daily editorial and more: http://vice.com
Like VICE on Facebook: http://fb.com/vice
Follow VICE on Twitter: http://twitter.com/vice
Read our tumblr: http://vicemag.tumblr.com
RSS Feed
