North Korea is one of the most totalitarian countries on Earth. Its people suffered from political despotism, severe underdevelopment, and starvation, so it’s no surprise that thousands of people try to take over the country every year. Now, running away is hard enough, but as the documentary shows, getting to safety is even harder.
You can’t just give up North Korea by jumping the fence into South Korea. That is, unless you plan to traverse landmines, predators, and North Korean troops with fairly loose rules of engagement. So most of the traitors moved to China, but they were not very welcoming. Chinese authorities refuse to grant exile status to North Koreans, in part because they view North Korea as a protector between them and “capitalist” South Korea.
So when a North Korean is detained in China, he is pushed back to where he came from. Those who slip through the net must entrust human traffickers to guide them out of the country.
In this documentary, VICE also travels to Kashmir to understand just how dangerous the India-Pakistan conflict is. Some say it’s the most dangerous border in the world. India and Pakistan really don’t like each other. Well, the feud started when Mahatma Gandhi finally won independence from Britain.
In the ensuing anarchy, Muslims in India demanded a state of their own while attempting to create a new one. As a result, millions of Hindus and Sikhs fled to India, while millions of Indian Muslims migrated to the newly formed Pakistan.
Now, while this division is happening, tens of millions of people have been displaced. Meanwhile, both sides brutally murdered more than a million people in a major religious killing spree. India and Pakistan have been enemies ever since. The focus of the long-running conflict is Kashmir, a predominantly Muslim territory partly occupied by India.
