Posted By: Samuel Dickson
Posted On: January 9, 2020
In Inside North Korea, a documentary by National Geographic, Lisa Ling travels to North Korea to document the reclusive regime. I was very interested in the film in light of recent events surrounding relations between North Korea, South Korea, and the United States, and the topic is definitely relevant for social studies instruction. Lisa Ling and her camera crew manage to capture rare footage inside the isolated country as they disguise themselves as a medical team. In addition to providing a new inside look at North Korea, the film covers many other topics about the country, such as Kim Jong Il's rule, the situation regarding North Korea's development of nuclear weapons, the military confrontation between North and South Korea along the Demilitarized Zone, ongoing humanitarian abuses by the North Korean regime, and the lives of North Koreans.
Some of the film's strengths are its excellent depictions of the lives of North Koreans and the way that the North Korean regime exercises its power throughout society. The images from inside the country in this film are rare and hard to find. The film succeeds at portraying the many hardships (frequent power outages, lack of food, poor medical care, censorship and totalitarian control by their government) that North Koreans face. It does a particularly good job of showing how important showing reverence for Kim Jong Il is for North Koreans. Since this film was made in 2007, the fact that it's becoming dated is one of its largest drawbacks for its use for instructional purposes. This is not to say that the film is not well made, but since Kim Jong Un has ruled the country for a number of years after the death of Kim Jong Il and the have been a number of new developments in the hostilities between North and South Korea, supplemental materials would be beneficial for educators hoping to use this in their classrooms. However, inside North Korea is a good film for introducing the stark realities of North Korean regime's humanitarian abuses and the military hostilities that persist to this day.