Stories from the People's Paradise, North Korea

FLYING IN NORTH KOREA  - Regularly in the news, for all the wrong reasons, North Korea is making a minor splash, on the a silver screen. "Comrade Kim Goes Flying" is a rare film, filmed by foreigners inside the Hermit Kingdom. The movie makers call it a romantic comedy, but in this grim land, that is revolutionary.

CRASHING NORTH KOREA - Armed with pictures of his fake family and new passport, a reporter crashes the world's weirdest film festival to find an entire country serving as set for a science fiction flick. Sadly, the cast is composed of real people cheated by the fraudulent People's Paradise of North Korea.

INSIDE THE AXIS OF EVIL - Bomb blasts, propaganda, a mock internet, deserted streets and stark countryside typify what is nonetheless the world's biggest worry. Yet a plunge inside the pitiful "People's Paradise" reveals a bankrupt regime desperately wielding absurd Weapons of Mass Deception.

DPRK, THE SHOW - The world's weirdest film festival provides an unique opportunity to sneak a peak behind the scenes in what has to be the quirkiest reality show on the planet. All part of the zany theatrics at the  Pyongyang International Film Festival.

NET? NOT! - In a country of contradictions, here's the oddest ever: the Hermit Kingdom's own Information Lie-Way. Ask Kim and up on the browser comes an answer unlike any in the world. That's on North Korea unique intranet, a closed system that maintains the deceit of the Propaganda Paradise.

CANNES IT AIN'T - Unconventional is an understatement at the Pyongyang International Film Festival; Iran and China were among the winners and we snuck inside the People's Paradise for an exclusive peek at all the pictures on screen.

PROPAGANDA PARADISE - Nobody has any idea what normal life is like in North Korea, but a new book from Englishman Michael Harrold, who spent an astonishing seven years editing speeches and articles in the People's Paradise will shed some light on the reclusive Hermit Kingdom.

TOO HOT FOR MICHAEL MOORE? - Farenheit 9/11 may not play North Korea, but a trio of Hollywood pictures will, for the first time at the Pyongyang International Film Festival, easily a world away from the glitz and glamour of Cannes.

NORTH KOREAN FOOTBALL - Its economy has collapsed, its people are starving and the hated rival of the south has surpassed them in every way, but North Koreans still remember with pride the Cinderella squad that nearly reached the 1966 World Cup finals; now a new film reveals the greatest story never told.

GIFTS THAT GO ON FOREVER - Does the world screech to a halt every April, as tributes flow for Kim Il Sung, Greatest Leader on Earth? Well, not exactly. But North Korea, already kind of comatose, slows even more as propaganda picks up pace and the privileged pay pilgrimage to the pitiful International Friendship Exhibition Hall.

Special from Seoul - They risk death by fleeing closed-off North Korea, but escapees find life doesn't stack up the way they expected down south in the other side of Paradise.

North Korea - the title for the world's weirdest country is no contest. The Hermit Kingdom defies belief in winning the crown hands-down. In fact, North Korea is not only the weirdest place that I've ever been, it's also takes the five runner-up slots. I made a rare visit in 1991, and you can join me on a train tour to Pyongyang.


North Korea - The Cold War may be over elsewhere, but the news hasn't penetrated the DMZ where a couple million armed goons stand guard at the world's weirdest tourist trap.

North Korea - Knock twice before entering Pyongyong's secret disco.

North Korea - or visit Kim Jong-Il's own personal fantasy-land of cinematic excess, his silly film studios where he churned out the propaganda epics back when he was still climbing the ladder to Dear Leaderhood.

* all pictures, unless otherwise credited, by Ron Gluckman
  TOO HOT FOR... VeryMuchSo Productions
  Comrade Kim photo courtesy of Koryo Group and Another Dimension of an Idea