Airdate: Secret State: Inside North Korea

SBS screens a 2 part documentary Secret State: Inside North Korea.

This is a CNN special from Will Ripley which screened on Pay TV in September.

With tensions near boiling point and Americans banned from visiting North Korea, CNN correspondent Will Ripley and a small team make a rare, exclusive journey inside the secretive nation to places few outsiders have ever seen.

Ripley travels from the heavily armed border region near South Korea, deep through the impoverished countryside where blackouts and food shortages are commonplace, along the coast where frenzied missile testing is underway, through the showpiece capital where a growing consumer class is emerging, and ending along the Chinese border as they climb North Korea’s most sacred mountain.

Along the way, Ripley has conversations with regular North Koreans who have never been allowed to speak with foreign journalists before. While always under the watchful eye of government minders, these unprecedented interviews give an extraordinary insight into the lives and aspirations of those who live and work under Kim Jong-un’s authoritarian regime.

Tuesday, 6 February at 10.00pm on SBS (Part 2 is Feb 13).