ABC News got to visit North Korea and broadcast portions of their visit on ABC's Good Morning America today. [video/transcript/link unavailable at this point]
What did we learn?
The North loves their murals. They're everywhere (though I only counted two in the images broadcast).
What wasn't everywhere? People.
The place was virtually deserted. The reporter claimed that everyone in the country was sent into the fields to plant and tend to crops. Schools, businesses, and universities. All closed.
Was there actual proof this was the case or were they saying what the North Korean government wanted them to say? We don't know other than the fact that no one was around.
North Korea has consistently bungled its agricultural production causing starvation and famine for years on end. The government simply doesn't know how to feed its people - and perhaps forces everyone into the fields at the business end of a gun. Of course starving people will do whatever is asked of them to make sure that they get meager rations, but that doesn't come across in the broadcast either.
How was ABC able to convince the North to allow these broadcasts? Was there a quid pro quo (and we know that happens as Eason Jordan taught us when CNN was dealing with Saddam Hussein's Iraq).
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