Has
Kim Jong-un lost the mandate of North Korea’s secular Marxist Heaven? Some speculate this might be the case, but
everyone agrees the young Communist tyrant will not hesitate to kill as many people
as it takes to maintain his grip on absolute power. A portrait of widespread misery mixed with a
little hope emerges in writer-director-producer James Jones’ Secret State of North Korea (promo here), which airs on
most PBS stations this Tuesday as part of the current season of Frontline.
According
to satellite images, the total area devoted North Korea’s political prison camp
system has measurably increased under Kim Jong-un. To put things in perspective, former CIA
analyst Sue Mi Terry explains some camps are actually larger than the city of
Washington, DC. When it is estimated one
out every one hundred North Koreans is a political prisoner, it is hard to find
grounds for optimism.
Yet,
Jones introduces viewers to a brave group of activists, who it seems are growing
in number. Through his network of
contacts, Asia Media’s Jiro Ishimaru smuggles out unvarnished video footage of
the shocking day-to-day conditions endured by North Koreans. Jones draws extensively from his underground
journalism throughout his expose. While
there are encouraging episodes of defiance, the images of emaciated street
orphans are heartbreaking in the extreme.
Jones
also profiles North Korean defectors who try to infiltrate the truth back into
the DPRK, either as contraband DVDs and flash drives or as radio and television
broadcasts originating in the South but intended for Northern audiences (like
the teen-centric On My Way to Meet You). In fact, the simple proliferation of cell
phones represents a significant challenge to the royal heir’s authority. Yet, any hopefulness Jones’ talking heads might
have is tempered by the ruthless and erratic behavior Kim has demonstrated thus
far.
