North Korean Camps, and Tea Parties

This short documentary is basically an interview with the only escapee from one of North Korea's most brutal prison camps, and the unspeakable horror he assumed was de rigeur, world-wide.  “ We were always hungry. Shins most vivid memory of his life in the camp is the constant hunger he felt, food made me escape, even if it was going to cost me my life. The only thing that interested me was the food. Before his escape three years ago, he didn't even know that a world existed beyond the barbed wires. Until then, his life had been one of torture, hard labour and complete isolation. ” After watching this, I got hooked on a series of 14 short (about 5mins)  films titled  The Vice Guide to North Korea (Part-1 link).   No way can I describe to you  how bizarrely interesting the series is. In one, part 6 I think, the film maker visits a tea house out in the sticks.  He notes that no other cars were seen on the road, and that he was the first customer the tea hostess had seen in ten months.  Yet she, and his "guides," played it all with earnestly straight faces.  I'm not trying to be snarky here, but at some point I was reminded of all the similarly bizarre goings-on in our own United States since c. 2000.  Stuff that made me think we'd slipped into a parallel world, with the government media blithely ignoring it all, la-la-la.   Very much in the spirit with this NorK scenario.  Prediction: A good many of you will be endlessly fascinated with both of these productions.  You're welcome.