A Slo-Mo Look Inside North Korea

In North Korea, the pro­pa­gan­da machine is kick­ing into gear, lay­ing the foun­da­tion for Kim Jong-un to replace his father Kim Jong-il. Ear­li­er this month, father and son attend­ed a mas­sive mil­i­tary parade togeth­er. Osten­si­bly meant to com­mem­o­rate the 65th anniver­sary of the found­ing of the Work­ers’ Par­ty, the parade was real­ly about giv­ing the son a big com­ing-out par­ty – a first intro­duc­tion to domes­tic and for­eign audi­ences. And depart­ing from the usu­al script, the North Kore­an regime allowed West­ern jour­nal­ists to cov­er the event live and on-site. Hence the video above. Using Canon 60D and 1DmkIV cam­eras, the Guardian bril­liant­ly cap­tured the pro­pa­gan­dis­tic essence of the moment.

Relat­ed note: It has­n’t been updat­ed in a while, but the blog North Kore­an Econ­o­my Watch uses Google Earth to pro­vide the most exten­sive map­ping of North Korea’s eco­nom­ic, cul­tur­al, polit­i­cal, and mil­i­tary infra­struc­tures. It’s a great way to fur­ther demys­ti­fy the secre­tive state. Thanks to Ed for the tip.