파수꾼님께서 올린
 아일랜드 공영방송
 북한특집 프로그램 동영상을 보니
 진실보다 강한 무기는 없다는 것이 실감납니다.
 
 영어는 유창해도
 대답의 알맹이가 빠진
 외국어대학 학생들.
 
 북한의 현실을
 있는 그대로 보지 말고
 역사적인 관점에서 봐 달라 둘러대며
 미국 탓만 해대는 북한 관리.
 
 햇볕정책의 당위성을 주장하면서
 계속해서 퍼줘야 한다고
 애써 강변하는
 대한민국 통일부 관리...
 
 8일간의 보고 들은 것을
 15분이 채 안되는
 동영상으로 압축하여
 북한의 실상을 꿰뚫고
 한국 통일부의 허세를
 냉철하게 보여주는 명작을
 젊은이들에게 보여 줍시다.
 
 http://www.rte.ie/news/features/northkorea
 클릭하면 동영상과 취재일기가 올라 있습니다.
 
 <마가렛 워드 기자의 취재일기 원문>
 
 Inside North korea
 
 Day One- Saturday 19 November
 
 'Your flight to Pyongyang is now ready for
 
 boarding at Gate 16.' We sipped the last of our
 
 cappuccinos in the coffee shop at Beijing
 
 Airport and made for the gate, eyeing our
 
 fellow passengers, and wondering if one of them
 
 was there to watch that we behaved. Or were we
 
 just being paranoid?
 
 We were welcomed aboard the ageing Ilyushin by
 
 white-gloved, immaculately dressed Air Koryo
 
 hostesses who served lunch and handed out
 
 copies of a week-old Pyongyang Times in
 
 English. The lead story was that the Dear
 
 Leader, Kim Jong-il, had visited a duck farm
 
 and pronounced himself happy with developments.
 
 The dateline was Juche 94. Years here are
 
 counted from the birthday of the Great Leader,
 
 Kim Il-sung, who founded modern North Korea.
 
 Instead of the usual weather forecast we were
 
 treated to a tourism preview of Pyongyang, and
 
 told that during our visit we would see the
 
 tower of Juche and the hill where the Great
 
 Leader spoke of the revolution.
 
 The first group down the steps of the plane was
 
 a delegation carrying foil-wrapped bouquets
 
 bought in Beijing. They were ready to go
 
 straight to the monument to Kim Il-sung to pay
 
 their respects.
 
 After our baggage was screened we had to hand
 
 over a mobile phone and receive a receipt.
 
 There's no Vodafone roaming here anyway, but I
 
 guess the authorities were worried we might
 
 give our phone to someone local who could
 
 access either the South Korean or Chinese
 
 networks along the borders.
 
 Driving into town with Concern and their local
 
 staff (assigned by the foreign ministry), what
 
 I was struck by was the numbers walking
 
 everywhere, carrying firewood, furniture or
 
 sacks of rice or other food. There was hardly
 
 any traffic, just long queues for the few buses
 
 on the streets. No ads, no neon, just a long
 
 parade of grey and white tower blocks.
 
 Pyongyang doesn't do traffic lights - it has
 
 traffic ladies instead. At each junction these
 
 ladies in blue trouser suits with natty fur
 
 collars and hats direct the traffic with
 
 batons, with military precision.
 
 We are being allowed to stay at a Concern
 
 apartment in the diplomatic compound. This is
 
 considered a big privilege; the few journalists
 
 allowed in here are usually confined to a
 
 hotel.
 
 We head for dinner at the Diplo, a club for
 
 diplomats and aid workers where unbelievably
 
 awful karaoke music is played to a video which
 
 seems to major on alpine scenes.
 
 Day Two- Sunday 20 November
 
 Last night we asked our foreign ministry minder
 
 if we could go to Mass, not really expecting
 
 that we would be allowed to film. But here I am
 
 being escorted into the front pew at
 
 Pyongyang's only Catholic church. And Magnus
 
 has a bird's eye view of proceedings.
 
 I can't understand a word of course, but the
 
 choreography seems familiar and I recognise the
 
 Alleluia and a version of 'We Shall Overcome'.
 
 Protestant churches were always more
 
 significant here in the early part of the 20th
 
 century, so maybe the hymnal dates from then.
 
 We're told there are also a Protestant church,
 
 a Buddhist temple and a Russian Orthodox church
 
 under construction. It all appears to be for
 
 show, to say that there is freedom of religion.
 
 The choir is dressed in pink, the pianist in
 
 green with pink roses round the cuffs. All the
 
 women are wearing mantillas and everyone is
 
 singing with gusto. There's nothing resembling
 
 a consecration and no communion as there is no
 
 resident priest. Magnus thinks he heard the
 
 words 'Kim Jong-il', North Korea's current
 
 leader, mentioned more than once.
 
 No one wants to talk to us or the camera but I
 
 slip a hymnal into my bag and make a note to
 
 check in with the Columban fathers when we get
 
 to Seoul to see how real this church is. One of
 
 their number died on the Long March during the
 
 Korean War, and many Korean priests were
 
 assassinated at that time.
 
 Then it's off to see North Korea's monument to
 
 its guiding philosophy, Juche, which is often
 
 translated as 'self-reliance'. Everything here
 
 is built to commemorate someone's birthday -
 
 usually Kim Il-sung's. The Juche Tower, which
 
 we're told is the tallest stone tower in the
 
 world, was built for his 70th birthday.
 
 Biggest, tallest, deepest is a recurring theme
 
 here - our next monument, the Arch of Triumph,
 
 is apparently five metres taller than the one
 
 in Paris. From the top there is a terrific view
 
 of the city, which rose from the ashes of the
 
 Korean War. Our guide says 400,000 bombs were
 
 dropped on Pyongyang, more than were dropped on
 
 Germany during World War II.
 
 Then it's on to the Great Monument, a rather
 
 tacky 20m high bronze statue of Kim Il-sung
 
 overlooking the city. Wedding couples are
 
 laying wreaths there in a longstanding
 
 tradition. This rather surreal first day
 
 concludes at sunset at the Revolutionary
 
 Martyrs' Cemetery, where bronze busts of
 
 various leaders look down on Pyongyang.
 
 We're a bit tired of monuments and express a
 
 desire to speed things up, citing lack of light
 
 for filming, but we get the distinct
 
 impressions that our minder is not impressed
 
 with our lack of appropriate devotion and
 
 reluctance to purchase the obligatory wreaths.
 
 On the way back, as we pass through a poor
 
 residential area, we see people huddled on the
 
 ground. It looks like they are picking herbs or
 
 grass. I'm not sure if this is to eat; we can't
 
 stop to find out. We are on an itinerary, and
 
 any deviation has to be approved. Stopping at
 
 will is not an option. We will have to try to
 
 get around this.
 
 Day Three - Monday 21 November
 
 We left for the countryside early in the
 
 morning, one of the few TV crews ever allowed
 
 outside Pyongyang. What was most noticeable was
 
 that every inch of land is under cultivation,
 
 and that there is hardly any mechanised
 
 transport.
 
 Any transport there is seems to be for mixed
 
 army and civilian use. Private ownership
 
 doesn't exist, so trucks or buses belong to the
 
 army or to work units and are crammed full of
 
 people. We saw more trucks broken down than
 
 fully functioning.
 
 Today we even saw the army hitchhiking. It's
 
 hard to believe this is one of the world's
 
 largest standing armies. But mostly we saw
 
 people reduced to pack animals, walking long
 
 distances, and bent over with loads of rice,
 
 maize or cabbage, or fodder or fuel wood. It's
 
 the end of the harvest season and obviously the
 
 rush is on to get things in before the winter.
 
 There is also the brown sofa phenomenon. I've
 
 seen three since we arrived, all being carried
 
 on the back of a bicycle, one with a small
 
 child perched on top.
 
 We saw three people in a bad state today. I saw
 
 one man stumble and fall under his heavy load.
 
 Another man was being comforted, clearly in
 
 distress at the side of the road. And I saw an
 
 old lady being loaded into a cart, clearly
 
 exhausted. The famine here in the late 1990s
 
 killed up to three million people, and
 
 malnutrition is still a major problem.
 
 Earlier we had visited a tree nursery being
 
 supported by Concern. As Mike, Concern's
 
 forester, explained, the famine in the late
 
 '90s meant that people started growing food
 
 even on mountainous slopes. So trees were cut
 
 down. But that meant there was nothing to hold
 
 in the land, and landslides and flooding had
 
 wreaked havoc. So now the race was on to
 
 reforest vast swathes of the country. But
 
 Concern has to leave at the end of the year,
 
 and the government has decided it doesn't need
 
 humanitarian assistance anymore.
 
 The locals at the nursery seem to have
 
 developed a good relationship with Mike. He
 
 even managed to persuade the authorities to let
 
 him bring some of the nursery managers in the
 
 area to a Concern workshop in Ethiopia to learn
 
 new techniques and share experiences.
 
 And they had a treat in store for us. When we
 
 arrived we saw two men pouring what seemed to
 
 be a flammable liquid over shells on a piece of
 
 matting and setting them alight. It was a clam
 
 barbecue, ready in minutes and served with
 
 local firewater.
 
 And that was just for starters; a full lunch
 
 followed. This was a sign of the hospitality
 
 that would greet us everywhere this week. There
 
 is a saying in North Korea - 'even if we are
 
 eating gruel we will give the guests rice'.
 
 They're obviously sorry to say goodbye to Mike
 
 and are very grateful for the work done here,
 
 but they have to accept the government
 
 decision. It could be a long time before they
 
 have contact with foreigners again.
 Day Four - Tuesday 22 November
 Today we went up the mountains, up to the
 
 snowline for the first time. North Korea is 80%
 
 mountainous, which is why producing enough food
 
 is always going to be impossible. Once again,
 
 everywhere we went there were people dragging
 
 home the last of the harvest.
 
 We crossed over a beautiful mountain pass to
 
 reach the town of Hoichang. Some of the scenery
 
 is really stunning. When we arrived the local
 
 kindergarten had laid on some entertainment.
 
 Concern had put in latrines here and had also
 
 put in new windows and doors to keep out the
 
 cold. The children, all girls dressed in pink,
 
 had an hour-long routine ready, but we could
 
 only stay a short while.
 
 The singing was incredible in itself, perfectly
 
 in tune, but the choreography was quite
 
 amazing. Everyone was in sync with each other
 
 in a robotic kind of way. In fact, it was
 
 spooky. And when I asked what the lyrics were,
 
 I was told 'the kindergarten is the bosom of
 
 mother, the kindergarten is the bosom of the
 
 Party'. These were five-year-olds.
 
 Then we went to visit a village where Concern
 
 had helped install running water. The women of
 
 the village were thrilled. Up to now they had
 
 to walk up the mountain for drinking water and
 
 wash their clothes and vegetables in the
 
 stream, which they said was icy cold in winter.
 
 It's the kimchi season, so they were all busy
 
 pickling cabbage to get them through the
 
 winter. Back in Pyongyang we manage to get out
 
 on our own for a while and get some street
 
 scenes on the mini DV camera. Despite several
 
 requests we haven't been allowed to visit any
 
 of the private markets that are the only
 
 outward sign of the market reforms of 2002. We
 
 manage to film one street stall.
 
 It's hardly going to bring the regime down, but
 
 they seem incredibly reluctant to show any
 
 evidence of private enterprise. And yet at the
 
 same time they are asking us how they can
 
 improve trade and learn from the Irish economic
 
 model.
 
 Day Five - Wednesday 23 November
 
 Today had its bizarre elements but none more so
 
 than our visit to a guesthouse where the Great
 
 Leader, Kim Il-sung, had once stayed. I was
 
 invited to use the room he had stayed in to
 
 freshen up. As customary it had a photograph
 
 celebrating his visit on the wall. It also had
 
 a massive en-suite bathroom - with an
 
 electrically heated red plush velvet toilet
 
 seat.
 
 Earlier we had visited the latrines that
 
 Concern had built for a series of apartment
 
 blocks in the town of Dokchon. Clean water and
 
 proper sanitation is one of the best ways of
 
 preventing disease such as diarrhoea, which
 
 needlessly kills thousands of children here.
 
 Dualta O'Ruhin from Kiltimagh in Co Mayo has
 
 been working on these projects for 18 months.
 
 He's very sorry to be leaving, and notes that
 
 because of North Korea's modus operandi he
 
 won't be able to stay in touch with the friends
 
 he has made here.
 
 It was a grim area. Outside people were making
 
 lumps of fuel from coal slag and mud. Heating
 
 their homes will be really difficult this
 
 winter.
 
 We travelled on to Pukchang, through one of
 
 North Korea's mining areas. Pukchang has one of
 
 the country's largest coal power stations and
 
 it's very polluted. They can't afford the
 
 equipment to bring it up to scratch.
 
 On the way we visit a clinic which has been
 
 supported by Concern. The Irish agency had put
 
 in a traditional birthing room and refurbished
 
 the small wards, but when we took a look around
 
 we couldn't find any patients. The sheets were
 
 pristine and looked like they had been put on
 
 freshly that morning.
 
 When we asked where the patients were we were
 
 told that they were all well and had gone home.
 
 'But this is a 24-bed maternity unit,' I said.
 
 'Is it really possible that there are no
 
 mothers or babies?' The manager hung his head.
 
 Then he insisted that we take a picture of him
 
 and all the nurses on the steps. We could hear
 
 sounds coming from another part of the clinic;
 
 the missing patients presumably. Apparently
 
 this is standard practice when foreigners visit
 
 North Korean hospitals. Bizarre.
 
 In Pukchang we checked in to the one and only
 
 hotel. I got a 'suite' with a bedroom, a dining
 
 room, a bathroom and an office. The 'office'
 
 had three phones - one green, one beige, and
 
 one orange - all sitting on little velvet
 
 cushions. None of them worked. There was no
 
 heating and it was freezing cold so we had
 
 brought electric heaters from Pyongyang. Local
 
 officials insisted on taking us out to dinner
 
 where we ate very good Korean barbecued pork in
 
 an icy restaurant. They tried to get me drunk
 
 on local hooch. Without success.
 
 Day Six - Thursday 24 November
 
 I was woken this morning by the usual North
 
 Korean alarm clock. At seven o'clock a hooter
 
 goes to wake everyone up and shortly afterwards
 
 a minivan with loudspeakers drives around
 
 playing revolutionary music to encourage
 
 everyone to get to work and school.
 
 We hit the road straightaway as we had an
 
 appointment with the Pyongyang institute of
 
 foreign languages. There's a university level
 
 course and also a secondary school which
 
 specialises in intensive language studies. One
 
 of the many murals of 'The Great Leader'
 
 We met a class of 15-year-olds with excellent
 
 English. They were having a lesson about
 
 computers and without any difficulty they
 
 defined virtual reality, modems, a computer
 
 programme and even the World Wide Web.
 
 But when I asked what websites they used the
 
 room went silent. North Koreans, with rare
 
 exceptions, aren't allowed to use the Internet.
 
 There is a North Korean only site, but no
 
 access to material from outside the country.
 
 It's hard to see how the regime can keep the
 
 Internet and mobile phones out of bounds
 
 forever, but they are doing their best.
 
 Day Seven - Friday 25 November
 
 We barrelled down the Reunification Highway
 
 toward the DMZ listening to Super Trouper at
 
 full volume (the Concern local staff's
 
 favourite travelling tape is Abba!). In the
 
 middle of nowhere orange-bibbed women swept
 
 leaves away from the median. There's no such
 
 thing as unemployment here.
 
 Today was our last day, and a chance to visit
 
 Asia's Berlin wall, the Demilitarized Zone
 
 (DMZ) that separates North and South Korea.
 
 After World War II the Soviet Union and the US
 
 divided Korea at the 38th parallel. In the
 
 North, Kim Il-sung took power with a communist
 
 government; in the South, a US-backed
 
 government took control.
 
 The Korean War of 1950-53 killed an estimated
 
 five million people, but the border barely
 
 changed. Since then it's been one of the
 
 world's most tense standoffs. The two sides are
 
 still technically at war, though a ceasefire
 
 was signed in 1953.
 
 There isn't much of a build-up until you see a
 
 long row of large rocks. Some kind of anti-tank
 
 barrier, I guess. We pass a sign that says
 
 Seoul 70 km, but of course there's no way of
 
 getting there. Tomorrow we will have to fly to
 
 Beijing from Pyongyang and then take another
 
 flight to Seoul. A North Korean officer
 
 explains the demilitarized zone
 
 Then we arrive at a modest building and are
 
 introduced to a North Korean Lieutenant
 
 Colonel. He will be our guide. No opportunity
 
 is missed to make it clear to us that the US is
 
 to blame for the division of Korea, and that it
 
 is the US that has carried out provocative
 
 moves over the years. In fact, North Korea has
 
 made several attempts to tunnel into the South.
 
 We drive down into the zone, a four-kilometre
 
 wide strip of land, where no arms except side
 
 arms are permitted. At the actual border North
 
 Korean soldiers and their South Korean
 
 counterparts (with UN flashes on their
 
 uniforms) stand just centimetres apart.
 
 The South Koreans wear US-style uniforms and
 
 shades and walk around the place peering at us
 
 through their binoculars. The North Koreans
 
 stand rigidly to attention. It's their turn to
 
 man the UN hut which straddles the border, and
 
 the Lt Colonel takes great delight in telling
 
 us that he and we are standing inside South
 
 Korea.
 
 There's no sense here that the third world war
 
 is about to break out. It all feels very
 
 contained. And yet the nuclear threat remains
 
 real, even if it's the ultimate bargaining chip
 
 that has no value once used, as of course the
 
 regime would be annihilated in return.
 
 Day eight - Saturday 26 November
 
 We got our phones back and checked in, with the
 
 tapes in my handbag just in case anything went
 
 wrong. North Korea had been fascinating and
 
 frustrating, but also remarkably friendly. It
 
 was sometimes hard to remember that behind the
 
 brief glimpses we had witnessed, there is also
 
 an infrastructure of prison camps and
 
 repression that goes unseen.
 
 We landed back at Beijing Airport Terminal 2,
 
 Gate 16, the same place we departed a week ago.
 
 In the meantime, we had learnt that the twice-
 
 weekly Air Koryo flight - the main link with
 
 the outside world - always operates from this
 
 gate.
 
 In the leaders and numbers obsessed world of
 
 North Korea, 16 February (16/2) is Kim Jong-
 
 il's birthday.
 .