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VICE Is Ten: 2002 - 2012

The VICE Guide to North Korea

A guide to the land of the free.

A few years ago we applied to go to North Korea as journalists and they said they were happy to have us cover the Arirang Mass Games in Pyongyang. Good news. Then, 10 days before we were supposed to leave, they said "Actually, no, we don't want anyone coming." Bad news. Then, right after that, they were like, "OK, OK, fine, you can come. As long as you come as tourists, not journalists." That was relatively good news, but it's definitely shitty news if you're caught being a journalist pretending to be a tourist in North Korea (jail is pretty much a prerequisite), but we went anyway and smuggled our cameras in with us. This is what happened.

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