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downtown

1:38

windhoek namibia at the intersection of the

1:40

castro street and robert mugabe

1:42

avenue there's an imposing gold

1:44

building with an affectionate nickname

1:46

i call it the coffee machines could they call

1:49

it he said coffee machine innocent

1:51

like coffee machine military

1:53

the big golden coffee machine

1:55

looking building on the hill

1:57

it seems five stories above

1:59

the and traffic circle and

2:01

it really does look a lot like a big industrial coffee

2:04

maker that you'd find in a banquet hall is

2:06

a huge gold and black cylinder

2:08

on stilts with an empty space and are

2:10

nice to big glass elevators

2:13

on up the legs

2:14

week ultra modern building

2:16

the museum

2:17

that's reporter ryan lenore brown shoes

2:19

base in south africa it was built

2:21

to commemorate namibia's fight for independence

2:24

from apartheid south

2:25

which it achieved in nineteen ninety

2:28

for many of the visitors i spoke with

2:30

the museum feels like a huge achievement

2:32

the other side says it does that

2:34

shows everything the efforts

2:36

lights it's a thumbs up for them

2:39

i am really proud right there is

2:41

one of the places that i can see i'm

2:43

proud of in mad magazine

2:46

that for a museum that commemorates throwing off

2:49

the chains of colonialism and forging a new

2:51

era of self determination it has

2:53

one pretty strange feature it

2:55

wasn't designed by in the maybe an architect

2:58

it wasn't even designed by an african architect

3:01

amazes , the of i have no idea

3:03

it was north korea is

3:05

it

3:11

the media's independence memorial museum

3:13

was imagined and built by north korea

3:16

state run design sale in fact

3:18

north korea is one of the most prolific builders

3:20

of monuments around the world

3:22

the country has less a distinct visual

3:25

samp across africa in particular

3:27

it's constructed museums and monuments and

3:29

more than a dozen african countries since

3:31

the nineteen seventies

3:33

the african renaissance statue in dakar

3:35

senegal that colored and the statue of liberty

3:37

and sense of family reaching triumphantly

3:39

towards the sky as a futuristic

3:42

mausoleum to the first present of angola

3:44

so space age is known locally

3:46

as sputnik and in the democratic

3:48

republic of congo as a huge

3:51

statue of former president or on to below

3:53

stand on a base who's texture says

3:56

national hero in all caps

3:59

there's a good

3:59

you've seen north korea's design work

4:02

before even if you didn't realize

4:04

it and the story of how north korea

4:06

it came to be one of the world's leading exporters

4:08

of statues and monuments goes back

4:10

decades to a moment when north korea

4:13

wasn't the paranoid and isolated hermit

4:15

kingdom we think out today instead

4:18

it was it was socialist upstart on

4:20

a diplomatic tore tore to prove itself

4:23

the world

4:27

for world war two career was a japanese

4:29

colony after the war the

4:31

allies took over the peninsula and divided

4:33

it into it became one of the front

4:35

of the cold war north korea was

4:37

backed by the soviet union and south

4:40

korea was occupied by the us

4:42

these countries ah itself is the rightful ruler

4:44

of the entire peninsula to prove their

4:46

claim both sides began a global pr

4:49

blitz to show the world that they

4:51

were the one true korea nation

4:53

basically north and south korea when a diplomatic

4:56

competition for who could get the most

4:58

recognition and international forums

5:01

that ben young either

5:03

dorian at virginia commonwealth university

5:05

and the author of gun gorillas and the great

5:07

leader north korea and the third world

5:09

they went to countries in the

5:11

south pacific some really small

5:14

countries like narrow or

5:16

tuvalu

5:17

the really the primary

5:20

space where north korea south korea

5:22

or competed for diplomatic recognition

5:24

was in africa this

5:27

was for was simple reason africa

5:29

was emerging from along era of european

5:31

colonization and as these new countries

5:33

began to win their independence their hadn't

5:36

necessarily pick necessarily side in the cold

5:38

war and many were open to

5:40

new alliances for these newly

5:42

independent african countries north

5:44

korea had an appealing pitch delivered

5:46

by it's leader kim il sung

5:48

would show them how to be a modern developed

5:50

country that wasn't western or

5:52

white north korea had done it

5:55

and so could day

5:56

the have a lot of postcolonial officials

5:59

and lead

5:59

there's and government ministers going to north

6:02

korea the next and seventies and

6:04

sixty's talking about how much

6:06

they saw north korea as a marvel

6:08

model development was it's

6:11

free and universal healthcare

6:13

system with it's rapid

6:15

industrialization and also the fact

6:17

that it was this independent state that

6:19

didn't have foreign troops on

6:21

their soil

6:23

with north korea was offering to it's potential

6:25

african allies was a kind of

6:27

independence starter kit it

6:30

was everything you need to build a country like

6:32

they had from military training

6:34

and weapons to factories and agricultural

6:36

projects and eventually the

6:39

statues and monuments you'd need

6:41

to celebrate your triumph over colonialism

6:45

which brings us back to namibia a country

6:47

in southern africa that became entangled with north

6:50

korea during its own independent struggle

6:52

like to people of north korea namibian

6:55

had been victims of brutal colonial rule

6:57

first the territory had been a german connie

7:00

called south west africa been

7:02

in nineteen fifteen the territory came

7:04

under south africa's control that

7:06

was supposed to be a temporary arrangement

7:09

but south africa took over and

7:11

refused to let go

7:13

that meant that from the late nineteen forties onward

7:15

namibia was ruled under south africa's racist

7:18

apartheid regime

7:19

resistance who apartheid was met with violence

7:22

and by the early nineteen sixties anti apartheid

7:24

activists in both south africa and what

7:27

is now known as namibia had decided

7:29

that the only way forward was to

7:31

take up arms themselves many

7:33

them fled into exile to train as soldiers

7:36

we need

7:38

that only reading books they

7:40

also we're me to lend how

7:42

to use a gun do

7:45

you liberate the namibian

7:47

people from different route

7:50

and you name a sequel was in early twenties

7:52

when he joined the armed wing of namibia's liberation

7:54

movement the movement receive support from

7:57

across the socialist world and some soldiers

7:59

spent time

7:59

in places like the soviet union

8:01

in china during my do miss

8:03

training he was referring to spend a year in

8:05

a place he'd never heard much about north

8:07

korea

8:09

so one day he got on a plane and flew

8:11

to pyongyang where it turned out his

8:13

hosts were startled by in some

8:15

way running do we need to see a black

8:18

skin

8:19

some are funding to touch

8:21

the even grow know people they

8:24

are what it bluntly the or

8:26

what type of skin is that

8:28

do i were jt

8:30

letting the to do

8:33

the north korean teachers monday may

8:35

learn to shoot a gun the study differences

8:37

between capitalism and communism

8:39

he trained as a farmer and he learned to love

8:41

he noodle soup is

8:44

, sold him you'll be to know all these

8:46

things to run a modern socialist

8:48

country one day maybe

8:50

not the same thing but the rest it

8:53

was very advanced to

8:55

, up to follow they develop their country

8:58

country want to do the same thing when we

9:00

go big we went to duel door

9:02

country like this we should they

9:04

do seem selected once were not

9:06

as the

9:08

early nineteen seventies about twenty five

9:11

hundred soldiers from across africa had received

9:13

training much like month do masks in

9:15

namibia be soldiers joined a guerrilla

9:17

war against the apartheid government

9:20

a planted minds and bombs and attacked

9:22

military convoys they blew up infrastructure

9:24

like bridges tunnels and border posts

9:27

this war of sabotage was meant to wear

9:29

down and isolate south africa one

9:32

of the last white helmets on

9:35

north korea was one of several socialist

9:37

countries supporting arm liberation movements

9:39

in africa

9:40

and a lot of it's support was what you'd expect

9:42

in the form of guns and military the expertise

9:45

but the country was also establishing it's african

9:47

presence in less orthodox

9:49

ways

9:52

north korea's leader kim il sung new

9:55

the crucial role that architecture

9:57

and design could play in building

9:59

and the nation in north korea

10:01

he had made the built landscape into a kind

10:04

of giant open air history

10:06

lesson they were murals statues

10:08

and released everywhere in public squares

10:11

and train stations all the public

10:13

art reinforce the story of the country's

10:15

triumph over imperialism and

10:17

of course the glorious leader

10:20

who led that fight

10:21

the epicenter for this kind of art in north korea

10:24

was a massive design studio located

10:26

in pyongyang it was called

10:28

months today the studio

10:30

was founded in nineteen sixty nine and

10:33

it was part artists' colony part factories

10:35

and all propaganda machine among

10:38

month city's greatest hits whereas

10:40

sixty five foot tall bronze statue

10:42

of kim himself and a series

10:44

of huge mosaic of the great leader displayed

10:47

and pyongyang's metro stations in

10:49

one he is literally the sun's

10:52

shining down over and imagined reunification

10:55

of north and south korea

10:57

these monuments we're all done in a style called

10:59

socialist realism it's an artistic

11:01

zone or that started in the soviet union and

11:03

was perfected in the cold war com

11:05

this world and despite the

11:07

name it's not really about

11:10

representing reality

11:12

it more about utopia reality

11:14

as you or your government would

11:16

like to be think russian

11:18

president striding joyfully thrust sun

11:20

dappled wheat field or chairman

11:22

mouse surrounded by a crowd of happy chinese

11:25

factory workers north korean

11:27

artists became masters of the form

11:30

and artists in turn became turn became

11:32

part of north korean society

11:35

i monday the jugular jill google

11:37

google the

11:40

guys is a pretty done and it

11:42

soon

11:42

in one word it was so

11:45

yes we didn't create voluntarily

11:47

but let's get this paper with

11:50

slogans that we have to paint for

11:53

example let's show are loyalty

11:55

for the kim family and

11:57

then we would stay up all night painter

12:00

slogans on the streets so that labour

12:02

as can see them and be motivated

12:05

to show their loyalty to the kim family

12:08

that be okay thornton i spoke

12:10

with him through a translator decades

12:12

ago he was worker at a steel factory

12:14

the north korean city of song rim he

12:17

says the just for fun to use to sometimes

12:19

gets his colleagues on their smoke breaks one

12:22

day one day official saw his drawings

12:24

and offered him a job making propaganda posters

12:27

for the local government in that region it

12:29

was prestigious work

12:32

i'm murder though

12:34

two cigarettes hang on and she goes

12:36

off

12:38

because it's a work of praising

12:40

the kim family we were looked as

12:42

with a certain sense of pride for

12:44

my and also it was in manual labor

12:47

we worked with bushes so

12:49

other regular workers were envious

12:52

and my parents also took great pride

12:54

in my work

12:54

pruitt them with what else rise

12:58

over a decade and sue day and focus

13:00

on creating work for the great leader and

13:02

in the process became a state sponsored

13:04

arts behemoth it will eventually become

13:07

a massive campus with more than one thousand

13:09

working artists and it's own soccer stadium

13:11

clinic paper mill in kindergarten

13:13

most of the country's best artists ended

13:15

up there

13:16

then in the nineteen seventies around the same

13:19

time and you may miss

13:20

quo was training in the north korean military

13:22

camp the studio decided to expand its

13:24

work into other parts of the world it

13:26

found it a division called months today

13:28

overseas projects now

13:31

north korea wouldn't just be training and funding

13:33

guerrilla fighters across africa they

13:35

would also be designing monuments and memorials

13:37

for their allies when they achieved liberation

13:40

this monument diplomacy was well

13:42

received especially because it was

13:44

subsidized from start to finish by

13:47

the north korean government and suit

13:49

a artists and architects design these works

13:51

in pyongyang and then constructed

13:53

them on site with her own crew of workers

13:56

all without the recipient country lifting

13:58

a finger

13:59

the

13:59

the north korea statue experts were picking

14:02

up the fortunes of the country are plummeting

14:05

the nineteen eighties the country's economy

14:07

began to crash south korea

14:09

was already pulling ahead when north was

14:11

dealt a near

14:12

it'll blow from

14:15

, d c this is world news

14:17

tonight with peter jennings jennings

14:19

tonight from berlin from

14:22

the berlin wall specifically take wall look at

14:24

them they've been there since last night they are here

14:27

in the thousands they are here in they tens

14:29

of thousands occasionally they sowed

14:31

the mom was that the wall moscow

14:34

that soviet union fell in the cold war

14:36

ended and in the process north korea

14:38

launched it's main sponsor and supporter

14:41

the north koreans had always talked to be game both

14:43

have proficiency with reality was

14:45

the country had always relied heavily

14:47

on soviet aid and without it

14:49

they fell under crisis

14:51

the country's economy all but collapsed

14:54

and then when it was hit with a series of natural

14:56

disasters people began to starve

14:59

the world increasingly saw north korea as

15:01

a pariah state with a cruel

15:03

and ruthless leader at the helm

15:05

although the north korean government refused

15:07

most outside help it was desperate

15:09

for hard currency and one of it's few

15:12

remaining exports one of it's last

15:14

points of connection with the outside world

15:16

was it's giant statues

15:20

quite honestly the only country

15:22

that really does socialist rails and as

15:24

north korea

15:25

that's historian ben young again he

15:28

says the big bold yeah trickle

15:30

style still had appeal especially

15:33

to young

15:33

african countries trying to shape how people

15:35

saw their history if you're i

15:38

african as a poll scalia

15:40

all nations and you're looking for

15:42

something that is decidedly

15:44

non western that as anti colonial

15:47

your enemy looking at the north koreans and

15:49

a north korean are it as and sculptors

15:52

they're very talented and they also come cheap

15:59

the day

16:01

the thousand

16:04

or maybe i'm from

16:06

they die down eyes

16:09

the ninety nine at namibia finally

16:11

negotiated it's independence after more

16:13

than a century of struggle first

16:15

under german and then south african rule

16:18

one of the leaders of it's guerrilla movement sam

16:20

neill became the first president day

16:23

ah ah ,

16:25

where the great story as

16:27

it your videos

16:30

as with any country born out of a long struggle

16:32

the omagh and other namibian leaders faced a

16:34

massive challenge and uniting people behind

16:37

a news story about the nation

16:39

the history namibian said receive no colonizers

16:42

taught them every single day that

16:44

they were inferior and uncivilized

16:46

a people without history the metal

16:48

give us away from the nation

16:51

that is kind of history we've we've

16:53

been given

16:54

gerhard gory rob who grew up

16:56

in pre independence namibia back

16:58

then history lessons focused on the great

17:00

empires of europe and the civilizing powers

17:03

of white people in africa

17:05

there were no com that history

17:09

the didn't hear about him liberation

17:11

movements so

17:14

it kind of you t v was in

17:16

the nation

17:18

even in a new namibia that history

17:20

loomed large there were physical

17:22

relics of colonialism everywhere in

17:24

the form of old colonial buildings and

17:27

colonial monuments

17:28

the namibian government decided it was time

17:30

to tell a new story one centered on

17:32

liberation in two thousand and one

17:35

namibia's cabinet approved a plan to

17:37

build a museum on the site of one of those colonial

17:39

monuments it was a deeply controversial

17:41

statue of a german soldier called the

17:43

writer dank small the site had also

17:45

been a concentration camp where namibian were

17:47

held by germans in the early nineteen hundreds

17:51

so the location of the new museum was

17:53

symbolic

17:54

the museum the not a neutral

17:58

this is a it was a boy

17:59

if willing to do so

18:01

who

18:03

more eat been maimed

18:06

of the people

18:08

let them understand that

18:10

, of we have overcome

18:15

the colony season or this country it

18:17

is it was we haven't

18:19

garage is also

18:20

dorian and would go on to become the museum

18:22

curator once it was built after

18:25

, a range of designs than

18:27

the median government chose north korea's min

18:29

soo dates to build the independence

18:31

museum the choice was in many

18:33

ways strains one the new namibia

18:36

wasn't a socialist dictatorship it

18:38

was a democracy it's views

18:40

and the role that the seemed almost diametrically

18:42

opposed to those of north korea the

18:45

north korea was also an old friends

18:47

during the cold war

18:48

when many countries in the west including the

18:50

us had worked against the maybe an independence

18:53

north korea had supported them during

18:56

those that this

18:57

the north korea was one of those countries

19:00

which supported the

19:02

liberation movements can africa

19:04

and in the new namibia months outta had already

19:06

built a number of projects including

19:08

a memorial the hero them liberation struggle

19:11

a new presidential palace and you

19:13

the factory and a military museum

19:16

so looking , the background

19:19

background leaders decided to ask

19:22

the north korean company to

19:24

have to beat the museum

19:28

museum opened on march twenty first twenty

19:30

four teams namibian independence day

19:32

in , of it almost exactly where the writer

19:35

dent more colonial statue once stood

19:37

was issued statue of namibia's first

19:39

president sam uma his

19:41

right arm was thrust towards the sky holding

19:44

a copy of namibia's constitution

19:49

integrating the honeycomb what the with the

19:51

to a it's a tournament but but

19:53

air her career i gave me a tour of the independence

19:55

memorial museum n at the

19:57

start i was feeling of the optical

20:00

the images of months today's other works in

20:02

africa from a distance a lot

20:04

of them looked loud and kind of obvious

20:06

maybe a little bit tacky

20:08

we are in the physicality

20:10

of their independence from little museum but

20:13

it's one thing to see a photo of a giant muncie

20:15

de niro it's totally different totally

20:17

be actually standing actually standing of one

20:19

and in the first gallery of the music i'm or

20:21

to floor to ceiling paintings but

20:23

immediately for them and

20:25

we are depicting the

20:27

history of the early

20:29

it assistance in the country and here

20:32

we do have images off

20:35

their first worthy

20:37

of worthy of country

20:39

the painter he's describing shows dozens

20:41

maybe hundreds of people lined up in rose

20:43

facing the viewers some are wearing uniforms

20:46

and carrying magazines of ammunition it's

20:48

others called wouldn't spears each

20:51

of them is painted is painted the realistic

20:53

detail and the collective

20:55

fact is striking this is

20:57

over a century of namibian resistance

20:59

compressed into a single moments

21:02

and , is very important because when people what is this

21:04

is gonna be the very very first thing they see us

21:06

so what do you want to put impression to be when they just

21:09

walk in and see this this how

21:11

is that , emphasis

21:14

of festive freedom

21:16

fighters of these countries public

21:18

the backbone of the museum or are these giant

21:21

immersive months today artwork and some

21:23

of them have a lot of violence and gruesome imagery

21:26

there's a gallery about the namibian genocide

21:28

the carried out by the germans in the early nineteen

21:31

hundreds and the walls are insensitive huge

21:33

scratch marks the represent people's desperate

21:36

attempt to escape from german concentration

21:38

camps does he deserve scratches

21:40

from

21:42

men and women

21:44

and also have children

21:45

you've been through the last okay during

21:48

the of those days that it's hard

21:50

not to come away from these images with a sense of

21:52

the incredible price that namibia paid

21:54

to be free

21:55

if we moved through the museum the north

21:57

korean connection also start to

21:59

get more

21:59

more and more obvious

22:01

video images of of

22:04

doesn't the uma with president of

22:06

north korea so

22:09

the the one of north korea's there in the center

22:12

yes it's in a gold frame all the other ones are not

22:14

for him to this yesterday they trust

22:16

with that one in the center like that and

22:19

, then finally in the last stream of the museum

22:21

is an image that i can only describe as

22:23

very very north korean

22:26

korean are ten people in the hero important

22:29

images of really wasn't much for a for

22:31

as it is this is how our is

22:34

are looking up

22:36

can see all walks of life

22:39

of a former us our

22:41

brothers and sisters our to school

22:43

going fast as the

22:45

antics main witness

22:48

they're all facing a rainbow sun which

22:51

is emanating raised in the colors of the namibian

22:53

flag red green and blue

22:56

hovering above the entire image is

22:58

the say says namibia's great leader

23:00

sam neill marcio does it

23:02

is how see our says

23:05

mouth independent people looking

23:07

up to the middle

23:10

the image feel like heavy handed the

23:12

gander but you know what else does

23:15

mount rushmore there's nothing

23:17

more excessive than carving the heads

23:19

of your favorite presidents into the side

23:21

of a mountain patriotism lends

23:23

itself to monumental us art

23:26

species the new

23:28

the have a nice in this

23:30

day in mean symbols

23:33

of nationalists

23:35

though at is what people

23:38

really see ellen de lis

23:40

dismissal

23:41

i think about what gear hard very rob told

23:44

me about his history classes growing up the

23:46

with told again and again that he was

23:48

primitives that civilization had been

23:50

given to by white people around

23:53

us in the museum are lots of young namibian

23:55

browsing the exhibit being told

23:57

a very different

23:58

three about who they are

23:59

and where they come from

24:02

i think most lethal me

24:04

it's says a reminder of

24:07

the emphasis is on my forefathers

24:09

the site so i really like that

24:12

it can were in times i feel like

24:14

i'm not very slowly nasa the feed him that i have

24:17

an coming here sort of this reminds

24:19

me to be good

24:26

independents memorial museum has

24:28

clearly served in important purpose

24:30

is helped reorient the story of namibia

24:33

around the struggle to be free but

24:35

less than less than after opening the

24:37

museum is already starting to show signs

24:39

of wear tiles are falling

24:41

off the facade the tv screens

24:44

imminent exhibits are working

24:46

and more people have started to ask questions

24:48

about the buildings provenance

24:50

north korea is widely recognized as

24:52

a country under a brutal and oppressive regime

24:55

and twenty seventeen months today overseas

24:57

projects was one of for north korean

24:59

state owned companies sanctioned by the

25:01

un intention was to deter

25:04

north korea from further expanding

25:06

it's nuclear weapons program

25:08

that largely ended months today's reign as

25:10

purveyors of socialist realist art around

25:12

the world

25:13

the on that there's a new generation

25:15

of namibian asking why such an important

25:18

national institution wasn't built

25:20

with more namibian involvement the

25:22

museum shows it's foreignness and

25:24

big and small ways

25:26

the of the murals don't look namibian

25:29

and all the people don't look namibian

25:31

and the say or to look at this

25:33

isn't done this routine not to put under the

25:35

curator of the nasty

25:36

art gallery which is a short walk

25:39

from independence museum

25:40

and she finds the images in the museum

25:42

unsettling in a number of ways starting

25:45

with the basic set that the people in the images

25:47

look subtly north korean not

25:50

didn't quite one is to just

25:52

don't have fled the fact that exists

25:54

they don't have a i'm guessing

25:56

you know languages she

25:58

also thinks the museum club

25:59

more to integrate traditional namibian

26:02

architecture and design and

26:04

then there's also the story the museum

26:06

tools it feels gruesome

26:08

and oversimplified seasons

26:10

the blood day that the capital bodies

26:13

they , bombs bombs

26:16

then at the end you has said message

26:18

zero with you know the full standing

26:20

sense and freedoms and slows

26:23

it to see like of a school textbook be

26:25

simplified send the flags on to see

26:27

and on

26:28

the how i got here but

26:30

even so young namibian like and under

26:32

are using the museum in ways that we're probably not

26:34

imagine

26:35

the designers there's a word

26:37

here for the generation of namibian born after

26:39

the end of apartheid of apartheid freeze

26:42

many older namibian

26:43

have a lifelong loyalty to the political leaders

26:45

who led deliberate

26:46

movement the born freeze

26:48

are much more irreverent and in recent

26:50

years they've been at the forefront the movement

26:53

fighting corruption and advocating for lgbtq

26:55

rights proto have

26:58

taken place right at the foot of the enormous

27:00

them

27:00

the statue in front of the museum

27:03

then i find it very interesting cause the

27:05

protesters have

27:07

been taking up that space that this

27:20

one of the most important differences between

27:22

putting up this kind of art in north korea and

27:24

putting it up in the maybe as that in

27:27

a democratic society people can decide

27:29

what the art means to them they

27:31

can interact with it and ways that challenge

27:33

it's meaning it's almost impossible

27:36

to imagine ordinary north koreans been free

27:38

to states protests at the sight of a towering

27:40

kim jong il statue but

27:43

the equivalent is happening in namibia

27:45

the independence museum might be steering

27:47

people towards one version of the past

27:50

but conversations are also swirling

27:52

around it at a new layers to

27:54

that meaning all the time

27:56

if you say we've got liberties and

27:58

see them such as

28:01

i don't think the so sexy cities

28:04

like that

28:10

i've lived in southern africa for almost a decade

28:12

now and i'm still struck by how

28:14

history here often feels like wet clay

28:17

something that still sauce and can still

28:19

be shaped

28:20

there are no kim il sung

28:22

the in a country like namibia no

28:24

one is untouchable in that way at

28:26

best their sam young as brave

28:29

people with messy imperfect

28:31

legacies that are still being debated

28:35

you can still build statutes that kind of person

28:37

of course

28:38

but they're always going feel like

28:41

they could be toppled

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33:12

we're back with ryan lenore brown reporters

33:14

weak story and ryan we're

33:17

going to be talking more about the artists

33:19

joke song who we heard from in the main

33:21

story and he's that north korean artist

33:23

yeah that's right and gives on has an amazing

33:25

story of his own that we wanted listeners to hear about

33:28

because while he worked for years as a propaganda artist

33:30

in north korea he actually eventually escaped

33:32

the country or get so tell us what happened

33:34

so for a number of years he was working as a propaganda

33:37

painter and actually not for months today

33:39

he worked for his local government basically

33:41

making posters to hang up around the city where he

33:43

lives glorified the kim

33:46

family encourage people to be loyal

33:48

workers but he knew

33:50

of months today because it was basically

33:52

the highest pinnacle that pinnacle propaganda

33:54

worker like himself might ascend to

33:57

eyes the sender

33:59

him

34:00

cooper been covering yeah i'm

34:02

include cousins the all of under some

34:05

someone with a with a new

34:06

that that even though i could imagine

34:09

a future working in months today it

34:11

was bought a dream i couldn't

34:14

even imagine even imagine dare to imagine

34:16

that i would end up there in

34:18

order to work there you will have to graduate

34:21

from under leads arts college in

34:23

the capital pyongyang and and

34:25

have to be a member the party thousand

34:28

of artists from a comprehensive

34:30

full of talents like statue

34:33

oil painting and handcraft warfare

34:36

and for me for my background

34:39

he was hard to imagine that i

34:41

can someday go there

34:43

ah so zoom into their is

34:45

kind of like the harvard of propaganda

34:47

artwork yeah that's right an

34:50

artist thera really revered in north korea

34:53

but even outside months today being an artist

34:55

north korea is pretty good work it's

34:57

very bianca from having to do hard labor

35:00

for instance and he was producing

35:02

these works the people he knew were gonna see

35:04

out in public so there was a lot of pride

35:06

attached to it too but then

35:08

everything started to change in the nineties

35:10

when sam and began to spread across north korea

35:13

who says to museum on

35:15

on to was among the sons of

35:18

bitches sustainable

35:19

although try these important what

35:22

matters the most is your family

35:24

from your only when families prosper

35:27

the country can prosper but during

35:29

the late nineties the aggression system

35:31

of north korea completely collapsed

35:34

and people could no longer get food from

35:36

the government and people had to watch

35:39

their family members die from starvation

35:41

and what kind of hopes crush you have

35:44

in this situation for the country

35:46

of north korea

35:47

the ah kong family simply

35:50

just didn't have enough to ease

35:52

my family was on the brink of death

35:54

as well so my

35:56

father and i crossed over to china

35:59

to let my the survive but

36:02

as we were crossing the river my father

36:04

got swept away and i

36:06

got arrested by the border guards while

36:08

trying to save him the oppression

36:11

by the border guards that i had to

36:13

endure the not be described

36:15

in words an old that i had

36:18

left after my time at the facility

36:20

was hate for the kim family

36:22

and family regretted the life that

36:24

life had lived

36:26

that is

36:27

i'm going with my traffic air

36:31

so eventually be a song was

36:33

released any cross the border into china

36:35

again and this time he made it

36:38

many many other people did not it's

36:41

hard to know exactly how many people died but

36:43

it's estimated that between ninety ninety four ninety

36:45

ninety eight five hundred thousand

36:48

north koreans died from starvation including

36:50

a lot of songs family some

36:53

experts actually think the number is much higher

36:55

as high as two or three million

36:58

so

36:59

jackson made it into china

37:02

what would happen

37:03

the settled in south korea first and

37:05

later he moved to germany which is where he lives

37:08

now and he watched months you

37:10

they become this big player in places like

37:12

namibia at the building is works

37:14

that were commemorating independence and liberation

37:17

he said it was really painful to see

37:20

this here to the managed to

37:22

pentothal cool so

37:24

three sons yourself

37:26

the defeat of that the tigers

37:28

has has a pittance handed to

37:30

them and let the sale

37:32

i used to veto works in the news

37:35

and i have i have a worker from

37:37

months the studio who was dispatched

37:40

overseas but arise eventually

37:42

in south korea

37:44

because north korea is a dictatorship

37:46

when people are dispatched overseas to

37:49

create statues are paintings older

37:51

money that they are and as salary is

37:54

taken by the north korean government

37:56

and it makes me sad to see

37:58

them why they lived a life

38:01

of a slave even outside of north

38:03

korea the , said

38:05

they built their worth tens of thousands

38:07

of dollars apiece but these

38:10

workers don't even know how much

38:12

north korea is getting for their

38:14

work what they only get his

38:16

some food items like rice and

38:18

cooking oil sent by the government

38:21

to their family members in north korea

38:24

the fascinating thing is that the or cons

38:26

own art has taken as really interesting

38:28

turn so i want to show you one

38:30

of his more recent painting

38:32

this is a painting over at north korean flag

38:35

as it was painted on a wall as a

38:37

crack in the law and all these men are shoving

38:39

their heads into it may pushing

38:42

each other into it's kind of maybe burying

38:44

their heads in it in a in a in a weird way it

38:46

is it's really striking and

38:48

quite cool actually

38:50

yeah so what be a song has done

38:52

is to take the stylized work of socialist

38:54

realism which is the style he worked in as

38:56

a propaganda artist for the states and

38:59

use it to satirize the north korean regime

39:01

but it actually took him a while after he less

39:03

north korea to get to that place as an

39:05

artist to

39:09

minimize some closer

39:11

to

39:12

it was embarrassing and first

39:14

i only tried to paint was beautiful

39:17

in a beautiful way bird my

39:19

professor told me to find something

39:22

that only i have to

39:24

look for dad and dig deeper into it

39:26

and study it and i thought

39:28

hard and concluded that my mission

39:31

the purpose of my paintings should

39:33

be to reveal the reality of north

39:35

korea as it is nothing

39:37

added nothing subtracted so

39:40

that's settled in my mind as my mission

39:43

love is trying to add a new

39:45

realism to his socialist realism

39:48

yeah no i agree and i think for me what's

39:50

interesting about these images as the third quite

39:53

funny right they draw attention to the fact

39:55

that north korea's this weird isolated little

39:57

country that can be really easy to laugh

39:59

at

39:59

but you also below the surface under

40:02

that comedy or these really kind of painful

40:04

tragic undertones you

40:06

can feel in this art that the

40:09

steaks of north korea's regime

40:11

you know it's paranoid repressive behavior

40:14

is actually people's lives now

40:17

why i'm really happy to get deeper insight into

40:20

jokes on after north korea because

40:22

azizah this is really amazing work

40:24

he seems like even more like an amazing her

40:26

name was like and yeah

40:31

thank you so much room

40:40

ninety nine percent invisible was produced this week by

40:42

ryan brown edited by kelly prime

40:44

and or executive producer delaney all original

40:47

music by swan real sound mix and

40:49

additional productions by martin gonzales

40:51

by checking by grammy shots for cause

40:53

it is our digital director residents includes

40:56

vivian lay chris brubeck days

40:58

in delhi own chris for johnson and it's encircled

41:01

lost my dawn jacob modern auto medina

41:03

still rosenberg sophia clutter

41:06

and me roman mars special

41:08

thanks those week to say i'm gong dawson

41:10

madly combined of hey allison

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