SHANE SMITH: It turned out to
be a comparatively short 10-hour train ride from Tynda to
Dipkun, which was the next town that had a North
Korean camp in it. When we finally got there, it
was pretty late in the day. We had to move fast. If we were going to see the
North Korean camp and get back in time before the pitch black
Siberian night fell and stranded us in the forest. Well, we’re sort of in the
middle of nowhere. But we’re going to try to
go to the camp now. The old chief of police of
Dipkun, who we met on the train, had offered to take us
out there in his new truck but was a bit worried about the
bridge because it had recently been washed out. We could take this. This would be awesome. Is this us? So we are in a race against
time to go see the North Korean camp. The old chief of police
is driving us. He’d been the chief of police
for over a decade and consequently knew
the North Korean situation there quite well. RODION MIKHAILOV:
[SPEAKING RUSSIAN] SIMON OSTROVSKY: They
get kopecks. RODION MIKHAILOV:
[SPEAKING RUSSIAN] SHANE SMITH: What’s kopeck? SIMON OSTROVSKY: Pennies. RODION MIKHAILOV:
[SPEAKING RUSSIAN] SIMON OSTROVSKY: They live
in smelly barracks– like dozens of people
all together. RODION MIKHAILOV:
[SPEAKING RUSSIAN] SIMON OSTROVSKY: Yeah, I think
we’re getting there. SHANE SMITH: The bridges is made
out of old railway ties. Our buddy, the chief of police,
he buys this truck on credit and then fucking risks
the whole thing by driving across this fucking thing, which
he doesn’t even know who built it or when. SIMON OSTROVSKY: Maybe we should
have taken our stuff off in case he falls
into the river. SHANE SMITH: He’s got
balls, this guy. SIMON OSTROVSKY: Yeah. SHANE SMITH: We’ll have to
buy him some more vodka. Hey. SIMON OSTROVSKY: Oh my god, it’s
completely been cleared. RODION MIKHAILOV:
[SPEAKING RUSSIAN] SHANE SMITH: So this is our
chief of police, and he’s breaking in to the North
Korean camp. I love him. RODION MIKHAILOV:
[SPEAKING RUSSIAN] SHANE SMITH: [LAUGH] I love this guy so much. This was a whole
Korean village. SIMON OSTROVSKY: They had a
sign here that said, “Kim Il-Sung lives with
us forever.” SHANE SMITH: Because, I guess,
that there have been some people who came– Simon, who’s with us,
being one of them– they’ve knocked down the camp. And they’ve moved on
to the next village down the train line. SIMON OSTROVSKY: This used to
have a slogan on it that said, “laboratory of Kim Il-Sung’s
theory.” So they’ve given it over to an entrepreneur
to take down. And then his benefit is he gets
to sell the spare parts and metal and stuff like that. Let’s try to open the door. SHANE SMITH: This was built by
the North Koreans to resemble North Korea. They wanted it to be like
a home away from home. And this was the laboratory
of Kim Il-Sung’s theory. So we’re going to
go check it out. So this is where they would
learn about Juche, the ideals of Kim Il-Sung. The study room was a bit freaky
because it had the requisite painting of Mount
Baekdu, which I had seen a lot when I was in North Korea, which
was where Kim Jong-Il was supposed to have been born
under a double rainbow as a new star shot into the sky
to mark the joyous event. But in actual fact, he was
really born in a small log cabin near Khabarovsk, where
we had started our journey, while the Soviets trained his
dad to be the Stalinist, cult-of-personality leader of
Korea after World War II. So there’s a room here filled
with Juche ideals. You kind of feel like you’ve
stumbled on a cult house because there’s these weird
things to make candles, and fires, and homage to the Juche
ideals and we’re finding crazy propaganda stuff because North
Korea’s a cult of personality. One man runs, like a
god, the country. SIMON OSTROVSKY: It’s kind of
got this eerie, Pompeii feeling about it. SHANE SMITH: It’s such a bizarre
concept that there’s little North Koreas dotted
around Siberia. SIMON OSTROVSKY: This would
have been living quarters right here. SHANE SMITH: It’s
not very nice. SIMON OSTROVSKY: Pure filth. SHANE SMITH: Very disgusting. SIMON OSTROVSKY: There’s
one of the old dudes. SHANE SMITH: Oh shit. Oh that’s– RODION MIKHAILOV:
[SPEAKING RUSSIAN] SIMON OSTROVSKY: He
says it’s fine. SHANE SMITH: Are they
North Koreans? SIMON OSTROVSKY: No, but it’d
to be cool if we were, and they saw us looting. SHANE SMITH: We’re literally
getting caught in looting right now. All smiles. SIMON OSTROVSKY: Just smile. They’ll think you’re crazy. RODION MIKHAILOV:
[SPEAKING RUSSIAN] SIMON OSTROVSKY: He says, you
want to see a real Korean? SHANE SMITH: Yeah. We should get the vodka. SIMON OSTROVSKY:
[SPEAKING RUSSIAN] SHANE SMITH:
[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] Hello. SIMON OSTROVSKY: Simon. We have to cross the bridge
while it’s light. SHANE SMITH: Oh, OK. KIM ZUNG YUN:
[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] LABORER:
[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] KIM ZUNG YUN:
[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] LABORER:
[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] SHANE SMITH: Well, I feel bad
for the guy because he’s obviously terrified. So we’ll blur his face. SIMON OSTROVSKY: Yeah,
definitely. Maybe we should let him know
that we’ll do that. SHANE SMITH: Yeah. When we told him not to worry
and that we would blur his face, the North Korean worker
relaxed a little and seemed much happier. He also told us that the main
part of the workers group had moved even further
up the line. So we got into another train,
and we kept going. Should we get arrested? SIMON OSTROVSKY: Yes. Video source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYnH-3vidzE
