vickykoryo

I am serious. I've been to North Korea with Americans. They were safe - and given that there is an enormous amount of very violent anti-American propaganda it's actually a very positive thing having American tourists travel there and show North Koreans that they are human too.

There are no subcultures, that would be considered against the ideology. There is an element of youth culture in Pyongyang where young people will skate, bowl, and enjoy other pursuits in their free time.

Ah, good question! I travelled to North Korea in 2008 as a tourist - I'd recently moved to Beijing from my native Scotland and had friends who recommended Koryo Tours. I went for the film festival (I studied film and worked previously as a video editor) and got to know Nick, Simon and Hannah who were the core team back then - they hired me as a video editor and social media manager and in 2013 I started tour leading. The pay is enough to get by ;)

Just got word from Pyongyang [edit: I sent a wechat message to my colleague who is in Pyongyang right now asking if he'd shown the guides the video] - the Koreans my colleague showed the film to were "blown away" our main guide said he was "very proud"

The whole of the timelapse is the real city, the entire film was shot on a 5 day trip in April of this year. The video was edited outside of North Korea - there was no comment or interference from anyone in North Korea on the edit.