>> narrator: tonight, inside the nth korea the regime wants to keep hidden. >> the way the north korean inregime keeps the regime g is this pervasive security apparatus and fear tactics. >> if people stop believing in the regime, that means central control is breaking do. >> narrator: with undercover footage and exclusive coversiewfrontline a new generation risking their lives to smuggle images out and information in. s >> north korean defectorhave emerged as very quiet agents of social progress. >> narrator: threatening kim jong un's total control of what the world sees of north korea and what north koreans see of the world. >> there really is a potential here that something quite

dramatic could happen. >> narrator: but how far will the dictator go to hold on to power? >> if a government is willing to kill as many people as necessary to stay in power, it usually stays in power for a very long time. >> narrator: tonight, frontline takes you inside the "secret state of north korea." >> frontlinis made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. and by the corporation for public broadcasting. major support for frontliis provided by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. more information is ave at macfound.org. additional support is provided t park foundation, dedicated to heightening public awareness of critical issues. the john and helen glessner family trust, supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. and by the frontline urnalism

fund, with major support from jon and jo ann hagler. and additional support fromll millicent through the millicent and eugene bell foundation. narrator: jiro ishimaru is a journalist tryinto expose what kim jong un's regime wants to hide: the secret world of the north kore people.

he has an undercover network which cortly films life inside the country. (translated): obviously, it's an extremely dangerou thing to do. in north korea, even filming de everyday life is cond a form of political treason. if they are caught filming, they'd be cked up and may never be let out again. narrator: even filming on the chinese side of the border is illegal.

narrator: the people who work for jiro smuggle their footage across the tumen river, which divides china from north kor. the north korean border guards have been known to shoot to kill. the border has become even more tightly controlled since kim jong un took over as supreme leader two years ago, the third ruler in the kim dynasty after his fathernd grandfather. he inherited the world's most isolated country, where the people have no internet and ste state has almo total control on any information coming in or out. even with the tight security, jiro and his japanese news organization manage to get the footage out.

narrator: he is going to meet one of his contas, who has made it across the border with new images from north korea. narrator: they secretly film in journalists are allowed to visit. narrator: these are pictures kim jong un doesn't want the world to see. jiro has recruited a netwos of ordinary north koliving

in towns aoss the country. risk their lives to get the footage. one of his contacts is a state employee, but has been smuggling footage oufor five years. he agreed to speak if his identity was concealed. (translated): this is dangerous, and if get caught, i know i'd immedly be executed as a traitor to the korean people. but i've got to do this. i've got to do this no matter what. i'm just one person. even if i have to sacrifice my fe, someday, something i going to change. narrator: the famine which orlled more than a millionth koreans in the 1990s has ended. but the united natiois says the countr still vulnerable to food shortages, and morethhan three quarters opopulation

don't have enough food to eat. narrator: over the past three years, jiro's undercover network d has filmed orphastreet kids gathering in the markets begging for money and on the lodkout for scraps of fo. for the safety of the people filming, he disguises their voices.

narrator: very few of these orphaned children manage to escape north korea. but we found one who did. he asked to be identified as "lee" and agreed to speak to us if we conceled his identity. (translated): my father passed away when i was three, and then my mother left home and didn't return. i was very hungry. i was almost always hungry wh i was young. there were times when i ate a meal a day. but when i starved, i didn't eat for two days.

because i was hungry, i stole and picked pockets. i lived like that until i was 14 years old. there were many others and there were children who starved to death. (translated): did any of your friends die? (translates, they did. (translated): how old were you all then? (translated): i was about 11. narrator: unasrcover footage from lt march shows a group of homeless orphans trying to stay warm in below-zero temperatus.

narratthere is an elite in the capital city pyongyang, and despite tough international sanctions, th live a comfortable lifewith th. this woman was filmed getting into a newly importemercedes on her wedding day. h korean state tv makes the country out to be a of plenty. they show pictures of an advanced economy, happy, well-fed children, and shops overflowing with goods.

pyongyang'partment store no. 1 is stocked with imported products from around the world. but as jiro's footage shows, many of the items are not r sale. narrator: the department store is regularly featured on state tv, which tells its people they live in the best country on earth.

one of the regime's senior and is now living in the south. (translated): as well as a physical dictatorship, they oppress people with an emotional dictatorship. in norea, they promote the leader to be the sun. if you go too close, you burn. if you go too far,u freeze to d. you think of him as incredibly god-like. we thought he didn't even go to the toilet. narrator: north koreans can'escape the omnipresent propaganda. kim jong un's speeches are pumped from speakers on street corners. (speech playing) narrator: this one was on a loop for three months, promising his people

a bright economic future. (music playi narrator: since the north and the south split in the late 1940s, hatred of america has been central to north koan indoctrination. this government video shows a north kore dreaming of new york city being destroyed by a missile attack. the average north korean believes a significant part of the anti-american propaganda. they believe that americans are ready to invade. they beliet america is a threat. they believe that americans started the korean war in order to enslave or maybe commit large-scale genocide in korea. they believe it. not all, but a majority. narrator: in pyongyang, state tv news is broadcast

on public squares, warning of imminent war with america. (children singing) ator: once a week, whole villages are required to attend eretings glorifying the le (children singing) narrator: the regime demands displays of total loyalty. if you don't attend these weekly meetings, you could come under suspicion. the way the north korean regime keeps the regime going, one of the reasons is fear tactics. narrator: in nory korea, it's not onle person

who commits the crime that is punished. often, their whole family will be arrested "guisociion." it's up to three generations. when senior-most north korean defector hwang jang yop defected, his relatirts were rounded up in korea and were sent to prison camps. these idn't even know they were related to hwang jang yop when the security guys came knocking on their door. they said, "i'm it was, like, a ninth cousin. this is how north korea operates. narrator: satellite imagery analyzed by amnesty international shows that since kim jongn came to power, the political prison camps have gro. 200,000 civilians who are outside of the criminal penal system. one of the camps, hwasong, is 540 square kilometers, times the size of washington, d.c. narrator: it's estimated that as many as one in 100 north

korean is a political prisoner, many og defect. still, several thousanscnorth koreans try toape through chinch y lee, the formen street kid, fled whe was 18. (translated): i was very scared, but i thought, "it's better to die than live like an insect." before i left, i prepared a litt bit of food. i roasted some beans. i ate little bits of that as i went on my way. i went to the top of the mountains to see where the guards were positied. then at night, i crossed the river when nobody was watching. i crossed the river alone and made it into china.

i used the sun to get mynd directions and went in. rrator: defectors like l risk t and sent back by china, north korea's closest ally. but lee says he met a broker who smuggled him 2,000 miles to the south korean embassy in thailand. he was granted asylum and flew to seoul, where he has lived for the last two years. he still hides his identity because he's afraid of north korean as discovering him. (translated): i graduated from high school in february this year. i'm currently looking for a job, but i'm not working yet. although i live in south korea e now, it still troubles m

think about the north korean children who suffer out there like i used to. (translated): north korea is al a society that has flen ill. it's a diseased society that needs to be cured. thour footage is forcing n korea to acknowledge the hardships that their people face. because if the truth gs out, it would put kim jong un's power under threat. narrator: jiro ishimaru smuggles footage out of the country, but there is also a steady flow of information back in. fe jeong kwang-il is a deor living in seoul who smuggles foreign films and tv shows into north korea.

(translated): hie men prefer watc action films. men love their action films! i sent them skyfall recently. the women enjoy watching soap operas and dramas. they like that kind of film. now they're sharing thumb drives a lot. even officials have one or two thumb drives. north korea is trying to hunt them down because the thing that changes people's mindsets is popular culture. it probably has the moimportantt de narrator: jeond his partner, also a defector, are on their way to the chinese border to smuggle in laptops, radios, usbs and dvds. (translated): of course there's a risk. but i want to send them in, so i just do it. in north korea, rumor has it there are 100 people that are

nsperate to get their han me. but they don't know when i go, do they? narratr : they are filming thtrip with a hidden camera. narrator: posing as mushroom importers, they ibed a border guard to let them across. narratort the border guard isn'ere he said he'd be, so they call him.

narrate guard says he can't get them across, so they decide to wait until night.

before defecting, jeong used to cross the border illegally as a smuggler until he was caught and accused of being a spy. he was taken to a notorious political prison camp, yodok. (translated): when i arrived at the prison camp, it was april 6, 2000. it was awful when i went inside. that day, they cetely beat the hell out of me. they'd put a wooden stic mbehind your knees ande you sit down, like this. if they pushed down on you, you'd collapse and then you'd hear your kneecaps cracking. i got beaten up and tortured for about nine months. before i got arrested, i weighed 165 pounds.

after ten months, i had a physical. whenked at what i weighed, i was 79 pounds. i couldn'te it any more. narrator: after three years in yodok, he says the auth ities determined he wasna spy a. a year later, he defected, and has been working against the regime ever since. tonight, he's going back to the border. narrator: jeong waits on the chinese side of the tumen river

for his north korean smuggler. they find each other by sparkin. their cigarette lighte

naor: the dvds and thumbdrives make their way to marketss the country, filled with goods illegally smuggled from china.

narrator: within divs, jeong's smuggler ds some of his thumbdrives and dvds to two teenage girls and films them watching. (music playing on computer)

narrator: it's been reported that almost half of the north koreans who defect had watched foreign television even though it's illegal. information and knowledge of the outside world is beginningo widen out. there's far more inner penetration of north korean society today than befor if north korean people themselves stop believing in the regime and the story they tell themselves, thateans central control is breaking down in some ways. narrator: kim jong un has reportedly been sending his security forces house to house, searching for illegal dvds, thd last november ordered e execution of as many as 80 pe le, some for watchingreign tele.

narrator: open radio for north korea is a station staffed by defectors transmitting stories into the country from across the border in the south. (translated): what the north korean regime fears the most is

information about the outside world going into the country. we tell the north korean people how vicious their dictatorship is. if someone listens to these broadcasts and passes the story on to other people, and if the story is political, it becomes a very serious matter. in these cases, i understand that some even facpublic execution. renarrator: the story they broadcasting today-- that kim jong un's wife, a former pop star, recorded a pornographic video-- is quickly sprea ang around north korea has provoked a vicious reaion. the station repothat the singer of the popular song "horse lady" and other performers in this video have been executer.for starting the rumo (translated): because north koreans are so cut off, they're incredibly curious, anplwe've found that peotake the risk

of listening to these broadcasts. narrator: open radio says that almost a million north koreans regularly listen to illegal foreign radio. (translated): the more i listened to the radio, the more i thought what we've learned isn't true. i've been fooled. and this made me want to become free. narrator: anyang is 22. she lives in seoul but grew up in a remote region of north korea.

narrator: her father bought the family a radio, which he mofiedo uforeign stions. (translated): my father was preparing to come here since i was nine years old. living constantly in fear like that was really difficult. if we got caught, the whole family ould get taken away. living constantly in fear like that was really difficult. i was exhausted by it all so i asked my father, "even if it's north korea, can't we just live safely?" but he said, "no. i want your generation to learn freely." narrator: when chanyang was 17, her family deced to defect. to avoid raising suspicion, they left at different times. she was the last to leave. (trainlated): i was always g watched. the people watching weren't just from the government. the people who were watching me were my friends and neighbors.

i knew all of this, but had to act as if i didn't. narrator: after two years laying low, chanyang escaped through china and reunited with her family in seoul. (translated): my brother and sister had grown up so much when i saw them, and their acces had all changed to but we were all back together again, in a circle. we're a family of five. we were all just so happy that we didn't even need to say a word. the first thing we did was just t together. narrator: chanyang now appears on a weekltv show with other defectors calledon my way to meet you.

is my name and where i'm born. narratorh it's broadcast in sorea, but is a popular show smuggled back into the north. (translated): my friends back home watch it, and all the children of the party officials in north korea watch it and say they will defect. we're going to talk about that today. when my friends see me on theou show, they'll fantasizt south korea. they'll say i've changed a lot. in n korea i never smiled. narratorenthe show is part curraffairs... part talent show...

part beauty pageant. north korean defectors have emerged as very quiet agents of social progress in north korea, because people often assume that they just leave north and at this point where you have over 20,000 north korean refugees that have resettled in south korea, that's a significant population that are joining forces to reconnect with their families back inside. and when they see that one of them can leave the community, go to south korea, that's a huge wake-up for them that shows just ho much more advanced and hmuch mo.

narrator: jeong is back in seoul, meeting with a group of defectors who are plotting against the north korean regime. narrator: yong hee and her husband jeong oh have fod another way to penetrate kim jong un's secret state. narrator: like jeong, yong hee says she suffered at the hands of the north korean regime.

her brother ught trying to defect and she was punished. she says srt was locked up and toured by security agents. narrator: she says the officers tied her brother's hands to the back of a trucka nd dragged him along rt road as an example to others.

narrator: yong hee escaped with her husband and son, leaving her brotand mother behind. (train whistle blowing)

(explosion) sharp newarning of all-out r. fostthe first time, the ious and secretive nation... there is nothing imminent, but these threatening stements have everyone on edge. are we on the brink of a nuclear war? narrator: last spring, north korea became the first country since the cold war to threaten the united states mainland with

a nuclear attack. when watching this i thought, wow, even from north korean standards, this is really over the top. they always do this cycle of provocation. it's just the intensity of the recent provocation was even i don't think anybody kally believed the noreans were cl going to launch a nuear missile at the united states. but the basic question that rose, "does this guy know where the red line is? does he know shen the bluster shoup or is he really gonna do som stupid?" this fellow may not know what is real and what is a video game. (men singing militaristic song) narrator: western intelligence ageies were concerned because they knew so little about the young leader. it's really sad but when kim jong un first became known,

ree cia had this one pictuf an 11-year-old boy with that bratty grin. and that's what we were working with. that's the photo that we had. and what we knew about it was already in the new york times. it wasn't really much more than that. narrator: kim jong un was brought up by himother, opera singer ko young-hee, one of kim jong il's four wives. he spent three years in a school in switzerla, posing as the son of a diplomat. at the age of 18, he was called back to pyongyang, where he was secretly groomed to become leader. state media had never shown kim jong un or mentionedim by name until the year before his father's death in december 2011. he was then unveiled to the north korean public in this state-produced documentary.

narrator: kim jong un succeeded his father and grandfather to become the new leader of north korea. in north korea, reverence for age, experience. these things matter. and now you are sort of parading around this 29-year-old guy who did not serve a day inhe military. i doubt that people genuinely have the kind of feeling wards kim jong un as they did for kim jong il. (translated): we would say, how can this boy who's still wet behind the ears be in power? but the north korean government spread these rumors that e although he was young,s very wise.

that's what the gove narrator: jiro's undercover footage shows people all over th country being forced toove theie new leader, but some resenting having to do it. these soldiers were ordered to build a railroad from kim jong un's birthto pyongyang to mark him coming to power. narrator: the undercover footage even shows a local official criticizing kim jong un's succession.

narrator: to compensate for his lack of experience, the regimeparallels with his grandfather kim il sung, who is still widely worshipped and is officially eternal president of north korea. there are all nds of rumors that kim jong un even had cosmetic surgery to look like his grandfather. but certainly his style seems to be more like kim il sung as well. trying to be a reincarnation of his g smart in a way because his grandfather is remembered by a lot of north koreans as a much more benevolent leader than his father. it's pr stylinat the moment, accordto the defectors that

i've spoe n with who have left untry fairly recently. the economy has not improved under kim jong un. narrator: the problem for kim jong un is that north koreans' expectations are changing. (translatebecause more information is flowing in, it's getting very difficult to make people obey. there are very few people left who blindly obey every command that comes from on high. narrator: behind closed doors, even members of the north korean eliteave voiced unhappiness with the regime. like this businesswoman filmed at a private lunch.

narror: the cynicism about their leaders comes partly from radical change in the way people make a living. (translated): looking at footage shot inside north korea, we can see that a huge number of people have started doing busine with each other. this used to be illegal, and anyone caught buying or selling for personal gain was severely punished.

narrator: illegal markets rst began to appear when state came unable to feed itspeople d. today the ate tolerates them, but people are pushing the limits of pre enterprise. this woman is running an illegal private bus service. an army officer tries to stop her from picking up passengers. (translated): people's willingness to confront or ignore authority has become more and more common.

people around the world have this image of north koreans as being brainwashed, but that's very mistaken. often now when north koreans are challenged for infringing a certain law, as long as the offense is not political, they don't hesitate to protest if they believe the law to be irtional. narrator: until recently it was illegal for women toear pants. soldiers are arguing with this woman about breaking the dss code. narrator: the soldiers put an armband on her to mark her offense. narrator: but befoan long, she rips it ofd a senior officer steps in.

narrator: five years ago, cell phones arrived in north korea. the undercover footage shows dozens of people lining up to buy sim rds. the phones can o ky make calls inside norea, but they can be modified to call outside the country, a very serious crime. there is an awareness and ability for the populati to communthate instantaneously at was never there before. ze north korea went from ro to one million cell phone registrations in three years. ll but to get from one n to two million, it only took one year. and probably, to get f mm two million to thrlion will

only take six months. that concretll that has been there for 60 years or so will become more porous. these changes cannote stopped. marketization, information flows... leall of these kind of tread to a transformation one way or another of north korea the system as it stands is just unsustainable. kim jong un faces the dictator's dilemma, which is they need to open up to su oive, but the process ning up could lead to the collapse ota the regime-- not the, but of the regime. and so thiceis a dilemma that he it's one his father faced, it's one his grandfather faced. narrator: this dilemma has led to a pow struggle at the very top ordthe government, accog to the regime's former propagandist.

(translated): in the past, there we n't hardliners and propagandist. formers. there was only party loyalty. today, however, rival factions have formed. the fact a split eshows he hasn't got a stable leadership like his father. so the only way for kim jong ut to hold on to power ough a reign of terror. narrator: kim jong un came to power surrounded by his father's generals. since then h ohas purged almost hathe top military. december 2013, his uncljang sor reform who'd served at the top of the government for 30 years, was forcibly removed from a party meeting. a week later, he was executed.

if a government is willing to kill as many people as necessary to stay in power, it usually stays in power for a very long time. there are many people who are not happy. there are many people who, in the privacy of their bedrooms, sometimes say something very, very subversive to their wives and most trusted friends. but no networks anusno activities yet, bethe government is brutal. even if, let's say, the public's more aware of the outside world, is that going to necessarily lead them toave a revolution? etveral people cannot even together to even talk about it. with what's happening in the middle east, there's twitter, there's facebook, people can get mobilized, they can get together. the way the korean system is set up right now, they don't have any kind of mechanism to do that.

but i think in the case of north korea, there are credible pieces that you can put together and say, "there really is a potential here that something quite dramat could happen." no one could predict the collapse of the soviet union, no one could predict the arab spring. afterwards, everybody said it was obvious. (translated): ct's not easy to predihen the regime will fall. however, the foundations of change in north korea are being laid. north koreans have undergone a huge shift in their collective mindset. i think change will come.

>> for over 3 years,xt withordinary access rsfrontline filmed prisone in solitary. and what happened when they get out. >> ultimately, i ended up shooting somebody and coming back. >> a reveing investigation of an institution trying to change. >> you could have them do their whole time in segregation. but xtdon't want him living ne to me when we release him. >> "last daysf solitary" >> go to pbfrontline for more on kim jong un, including exclusive childhood photos and interviews with those who know. find out how life has changed for ordinary north koreans.

plus, what are the possibilities for reform in north korea? >> the system as it stands is ju unsustainable. >> connect to the frontline community on facebook and twitter or pbs.org/ontline. >> frontlinis made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. and by the corporation for public brocasting. major support for frontliis provided by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more st, verdant, and peaceful world. more information is available at macfound.org. addition support is provided by the park foundation, dedicated to heightening public aweness of critical issues the john and helen glessner family trust, supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. and by the frontline journalism romd, with major support jon and jo ann hagler. and additional support from millicent bell, through the

millicent and eugene bell foundation. captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> for more on this and other frontline programs, visit our website at pbs.org/frontline. frontline"secret state of bl north korea" is avaion dvd. to order, visit shoppbs.org1- or cal0-playpbs. fronaiine is also ble for download on itunes.

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♪ yo - [carlos] success is often elusive. especial for those who don't know where to look. but for eddie huang, a celebrated restaurateur, author, and hit tv personality, success found him while he was pushing his unabashed perspective on anyone who would listen. eaamerica is the grtest experiment. ll have this excellent opportunity. now what are we going to do with it? - [carlos] but how did s fight his way through life on his own terms and make his voice heard in the crowded world of pop culture? (eddie suting) and what was the driving force that set him on the path to breaking big? - [carlos] what makes people successful? what are the unexpected turns in life that propel people to greatness? i'm carlos watson, editor of y.