North Koreans are all brainwashed to believe America is the devil and from birth you are brought up in a society where the cold war is very much alive. Everything thats wrong there they blame on America or anyone who doesn't follow the strict order of society. There's no WAY an American could venture into North Korea, even less so 43 years ago, and not become a very public and brutal example of what should be done to Americans. He just walked over the fucking DMZ! A South Korean can't do that!
Bullshit! This is as fake as it gets! Nothing here is real I don't believe it... watch videos on North Koreans talking about North Korea. Don't watch a North Korean from Pyongyang either... the few selected thousands that live in that area have not even a high standard but a more than decent standard of living and they are all brainwashed high ranked political individuals. A north korean born in unfavorable circumstances can NEVER have this life. It is Disgusting the LIES this nation puts forth!
@elmano04 Apparently he was going to be court-martialed. He chose not to go to jail. It is a Federal crime, you know. It haunts you to your deathbed. Apparently, he doesn't regret it.
@UbermenschWill No, are you kidding me? I mean are you being fucking serious or just joking? Forging signatures > haunts until you die? Wow... unbelievable. Besides, you learn forging signatures when you are a child.
@MGSoldier Yes! Dude, seriously, you don't seem to understand; forging a signature as a soldier in order to get away from duty and to leave your post, especially in a dangerous place such as the DMZ is a very serious offence that will stain your criminal record permanently.
@elmano04 His parents divorced when he was 10, he never saw his brother or mother again, placed in a foster home, dropped out of high school and his wife left him. Talk about bad luck....
Other than having Christian Slater as the narrator this is has been a well done production so far. I've been curious about Mr. Dresnok for quite awhile.
Why can't people just respect Dresnok's decision to accept his faith and that he is even content with it. Clearly some people like the idea that life is just simple in North Korea, some people just don't need internet and cell phones.
@boulr They have cell phones and the internet in North Korea it's just regulated. But yes life is simple in North Korea everyone is given a job and a purpose in life to furfil forever. Some may crave competition and the ability to chose their own path and advancement but if people prefer to have a simple life and not crave more than that i say let them have it.
@Wolf78033 Everyone in North Korea gets free health care which is more than can be said for western countries. Stores in North Korea sell mineral water as a solution for the tap water lots of western countries also don't have clean drinking water. And the food shortages are mainly in hard to get to rural areas. Everyone also gets food and a place to live from the government. In the west if you can't pay you live on the streets and beg.
@deaconkris Are you effing drunk/insane? What you say might be true for the U.S., but we roll differently in Europe. We have free healthcare, we have clean drinking water, we are free to travel around the world and we can surf the net freely. You are either;
I) Ignorant about what life in the West truly is like (West=N & S America+Europe)
II) a DPRK propagandist.
Maybe both. Life in the DPRK isn't that great. Had you lived there, you'd know. Some may like it. Not all of us do.
@UbermenschWill The free healthcare in Europe is circumstantial and not free in all cases. In DPRK it is free for everyone. Europe has been busy following America's lead in pushing more people into private healthcare by making the free healthcare below par. Commercial healthcare for all is just around the corner. Also not every European country has clean drinking water. Spain for example.
@UbermenschWill I'm from the UK lol i live in Europe. If Spain has clean drinking water tell me why there are tons of signs telling me to not drink the tap water? Because it's unclean that's why. The healthcare system in several European countries is pushing private healthcare on people with a failing free healthcare system. And most people still have to pay for prescriptions.
@deaconkris Curiously I've never seen such signs in Spain. Where did you go?
You do realise that most DPRK households have no running water and electricity at all?
No one has to pay for prescription drugs in Europe. This is what tells prescription drugs apart from over-the-counter drugs. And most healthcare systems work incredibly well here.
@UbermenschWill And how many times have you been to DPRK? Funny how you make sweeping statements about a country you have never visited. Of course you have never seen them admitting that would mean you agreed with me on something and we cannot have that. What you said is not true for many countries where paying for perscriptions is means tested. Not free for everyone at all.
@UbermenschWill Also since we are doing comparisons look at the rise of the unemployed and the homeless in Europe. People left on the streets to rot in their own filth. in DPRK everyone is given a job and a home. Every human being is entitled to a purpose in life not just the rich elite of society. DPRK is not perfect but at least they don't abandon their own.
@deaconkris This isn't completely true. Yes, the unemployment rate is rising. No one is left "rotting in the streets".
Remember, you live in the most capitalist country in Europe. Things work differently on the mainland. In the DPRK, during the 1990's famine, thoudands of people actually died in the streets due to undernourishment. Their houses are dumps. I've been there twice, man.
BTW, I am a fierce socialist, not a conservative. Still, I can tell social justice apart from craziness.
@UbermenschWill Twice? You don't talk like somebody who has been there you talk like somebody who is just spouting the propaganda of your European overlords. Depends on your definition of a dump. They have everything needed and nothing more. Don't need to live in a mansion to have a nice home. The problem with most socialists is they want socialism but with all the consumerism they enjoy now. Can't have it both ways,You want the simple life or not.
@deaconkris Actually you can. Their neighbor China, is a communist government but follows a capitalist economic system. So now you have socialists living in mansions and houses, enjoying all the trappings of their American business partners.
North Korea on the other hand is an absolute pisshole. Everything you get is the bare minimum unless you are in a high position in the party, or shell out extra cash for extra benefits.
@Lightscribe225 Come on! Communism, is incompatible with the Chinese Communist Party. The PRC is only nominally a Communist country. Call it Capitalist. That's the truth.
@UbermenschWill Capitalist is an economic system. Do you call the British Parliament a capitalist system? American Congress?
What you have in China is the Chinese version of Socialism. Different, but effective on the account the government has done what it has done for the last 4000 years: Not give a shit about the populace and what they do.
@Lightscribe225 "Capitalist is an economic system. Do you call the British Parliament a capitalist system? American Congress?"
Indded I do.
Politics is only a myth. All that matters is the economic system a country chooses. Most of Europe is kind of socialist, whereas both the U.K. and the U.S. are right-winged, capitalist countries. China is more alike you guys than Sweden, Italy of France.
@deaconkris Dude, they have no clean running water, no heating, no electricity, barely enough food. Why are you ignoring that fact?
Dying in a street due to starvation is not "having all you need". Seriously, visit the place at least once.
Plus, the DPRK is a racist, xenophobic country. Not communist, at all.
I don't want consumerism, but I do want to live. If you like the DPRK, try out their lifestyle. Rent a 100 sq foot apartment infested with roaches and turn off the lights. Have fun.
@Wolf78033 A lot of these comments you make are typical of a person who has never seen North Korea for themselves and you believe all the propaganda. Perhaps you should do more research from fair a balanced people before believing what your masters tell you to believe.
Fuck, blocking the internet isn't such a bad idea. Look how stupid half of america is, I could show you my Facebook wall and you would see what I mean.
@jaredlee283 In south Korea people are imprisoned for praising Kim Il-sung. Also the Lee Myung-bak group issues threats against groups that criticize the capitalist system, saying that they are "aiding the enemy" (an illegal act in south Korea)
Great post, I was compelled to watch the whole thing. BTW the video and audio are out of synch at least for parts 2 through 6. SPOILERS My personal opinion is the BBC was caught off guard when Jenkins was able to get out of there while filming as it was pretty sympathetic to Dresnok up until then. It was also nice to North Korea and never mentioned what life was like outside the capital which BTW is all you ever get to see on western TV. I suspect life outside the capital is a living hell. TY
Once the "Asian Spring" begins, this fat piece of shit and his family will be some of the first against the wall. I hope they make a documentary of that. LOL.
I don't believe anything he says. This was filmed in North Korea. He was interviewed there. Everything he said would have been what he was told to say by the North Koreans. Maybe he truly does love North Korea, but I doubt it. I find my explanation far more plausible.
@JisakuJ dont justify north korea because of your mistreatment by capitalism.
capitalism was not perfect nor was it intended to be the perfect system
at least capitalism is a hell of a lot more honest way of living....and no i never supported capitalism, i am a socialist at heart BUT i cant stand how the DPRK is misusing the marxism philosophy for their devilish ways of genocide. people are killed in Pyongyang for searching mice to eat...and you are worried if you can buy that new iphone or not
@guitarhamster102 North Koreans have been shown KPop. South Korean boy band played before a North Korean audience. And their reaction was almost universal: "What the fuck is this shit?"
Just give them uncensored internet access, and let them discover the truth for them selves. How could the people possibly support the state if they had access to free information? They are not stupid, just robbed of information. I believe the one true path to freedom for this people, is knowledge. Grant them access, and enlightenment is inevitable.
@ragnarlava that's y they don't want them to have it. cause if they did.....who would willingly stay? they could start a revolution online and get foreign ally support all from being online.....raising awareness
@ragnarlava They have been brainwashed for years. The saddest thing is even if they had access to the informations, they wolud not belive it. Never. I feel really sorry for north korean people.
@ragnarlava I agree that access to the Internet would help. However, it hardly guarantees anything. Most Americans have access to the Internet, but they still support people like Santorum, Bill O'Reilly etc. What's their excuse?
@ragnarlava There is a South Korean organization that deploys balloons tied with hundreds of documents revealing the real NK and the outside world. The result? 80% of NK defectors that have made their successful escape to SK were people who have read these documents.
@ragnarlava That isn't completely true. Many DPRK citizens are aware of what life in the rest of the world is like. They still believe the propaganda because they received a Kim-family centred education, which made them believe they believe they are the best people in the world and that the U.S. are looking forward to corrupting their superior blood. Virtually, a country based on indoctrination and rascism. Your thoery is wrong, I am sorry to say. Believe me.
Thousands of children dying RIGHT NOW of starvation, and look at him. He is probably lying about everything. No, not probably. Right; "I removed my tattoo willingly" (later in the film). What do you want to bet he regrets this every day of his life?
Dresnok came from broken homes and the lower, lowest rung of the 99% society. Joe would now be in prison, wasting away until death. I cannot judge him, because I haven't walked a mile in his shoes. To the consternation and bedevilment of his so-called moral peers; Joe Dresnok is a traitor to America! The 1% of fat cats, aristocrats have utter disdain for a peasant who would not stay in the gutter to please them. I would have not chosen his path at all; but Dresnok has made a life for his own.
I would live in N. Korea myself, but I hate lies and no freedom to be yourself is not my thing it is just interesting how the gove. is protecting an "enemy" I don't get it hahah
who will go to NK except a 20 year old stupid American? He likes it there because they fed him, he grew double chin. And of course he was being used as North Koreans propaganda. If North Koreans put him in jail, i swear he will not like it. And maybe dying to go back to US.
No way, another British Documentary trying to make America look bad. I mean really, what are the chances? I'm gonna do a documentary entitled, "How to go from worlds superpower to developing nation marred in riots in only 2 generations"
It's not another British documentary trying to make America look bad. It's just a fact that a US soldier decided to defect to the North Koreans. The one whose doing the bad mouthing in this documentary is ironically an American.
@SeanP7195 In what possible way is this attacking America? It's an interesting documentary of someone who went the other way.
In no way is this Britain slagging America, in fact I'd love to see these other documentaries that you speak of. I can only think of Michael Moore slagging America in documentaries.
@MrCaracas1000 That's because Dresnok is still living there. You should read Charles Robert Jenkins' account, since he is an American who was kept in North Korea for years (along with Dresnok) and then got out to Japan with his wife, a kidnapped Japanese citizen brought in by the DPRK to help train spies. But why look at both sides of the story when it doesn't fit your point of view?
@MrCaracas1000 I hadn't heard of this arrest warrant between 2001-2009. Can you please provide proof of it?
I suppose with your last sentence you are implying that Jenkins lied about his life in the worker's paradise of the DPRK just to get a lighter sentence from the US Army? So to you (an apparent ideologue) Dresnok is telling the truth but Jenkins is a liar?
@zorak1997 Im not saying hes a liar im just saying he had a reason to describe and probibly exagreatte stories about life in the DPRK to gain public sympathy, did you even watch the whole movie?
@MrCaracas1000 Oh please, you're an ideologue for totalitarian states that you would never dare to live in. You were clearly implying that Jenkins lied, especially if you say that you believe Dresnok.
Also, I'm still waiting for that proof of the arrest warrant for Dresnok.
@MrCaracas1000 I think we got crossed up there. When you mentioned "he" had an arrest warrant from the Bush administration I thought you were referring to Dresnok, as I'd referred to both him and Jenkins in my previous post. I would therefore like to buy you a one-way ticket to Pyongyang.
@MrCaracas1000 Yaaaaawwwwnnnn.... You have no valid argument, you just toe the Kim Party Line, then you delcare victory and leave the field. You're such a pussy, puppet boy.
@MrCaracas1000 Congrats on having a friend. A "gopood" friend at that. Well, puppet boy, I've been to the DPRK myself and it blows. The countryside is absolute misery, unless you enjoy bathing in dirty rivers, having no electricity, but have a government fatherly enoug to post "revolutionary" slogans in your crappy town just to remind you that you live eternally in 1984.
@MrCaracas1000 Have you even read your own posts? I'm sure that both you and your "virtual friend" can spout nothing but propaganda for communism. Don't you find it ironic that you and your comrades defend the Cultural Revolution and the Great Leap Forward while people in modern China condemn both as failures? Oh wait, that would require analytical thinking and self-evaluation - or enemies of the state to someone like you.
@zorak1997 Oh and im sure youve given a complete critical anylisis to the hanous war crimes commited by South Korean troops, you have nothing intellegent left to say so dotn waste my time
@MrCaracas1000 Oh right - because in your pea-sized brain you convincingly "won" our argument and proved that Jenkins is a liar, Dresnok's word is gospel, and there's no oppression in the beautiful countryside of the DPRK?? Just like how your hero Kim Il-Sung defeated the Japanese single-handedly in World War II, and then annihilated the Americans in the "Victorious Fatherland Liberation War". Assuredly a double rainbow was in the sky when you were born, too!! Derrrr.....
well im sure its fun to be in such a prominent position as ordinary guy if you can look past the evil commie terror that goes on there. so from this point of view i can understand the guy but then i could not sleep at night because my consience would eat me alive if i would be in his place ._.
i think we should also look to crimes of our own governments rather than point the finger and participate in the spiral of hatred that dogs humanity. north korea, u.s.a., u.k., it doesn't matter where you are all governments are corrupt. some give more of an illusion of freedom than others.
that's why i said some governments are more corrupt than others. and, yes, you can compare. didn't i do that in my previous comment? the north korean government.. as "evil" as they are.. are human beings just like the rest of us.. yes? so don't judge them. maybe if you were in their position you might be the same way. power changes people dramatically.
@MrJellyintheoven There are plenty of people in this world that have power. Why arent they doing evil things to their own people too? A government that feels like having a staring contest over an imaginary line without ever speaking is ridiculous. Especially when they torture their own people in private prison camps set up all around. Oh, and the whole "theyre human beings too" seems like youre just being biased.
excuse me but the US and UK goverments have both done wicked things to their own people too. for example.. the british goverment have admitted that between 1940 and 1979 they tested biological weapons (chemtrails) on their own citizens without permission. you can google this and you will find it in the mainstream media. another example to quote the BBC..
and i am not defending the north korean government.. or saying that they aren't crazy Orwellian type big brother facists.. but my point was that instead of poking our noses into the affairs of other countries why don't we look to ourselves and our own governments.
@MrJellyintheoven Poking our noses into the the affairs of other countries? You think its just the United States that wants the NK government disbanded? Go do research about that
"More than 60,000 Americans were sterilised, many against their will, as part of a eugenics movement that finished in 1979, aimed at keeping the poor and mentally ill from having children".
and i never said the united states were the only ones who were criticising north korea. many countries are criticising north korea.
@MrJellyintheoven lol. youre talking about something that was going on over 30 years like its going to support anything youve been talking about. OF COURSE IM TALKING ABOUT GOVERNMENT ISSUES IN 2011. This debate is over #Winning
As a US Marine, I literally would execute this guy the first chance I had. I agree with the other comment, his eyes cannot hide what he really feels. Even with his life of privilege in DPRK, it does not compare to one day on US Soil.
@bartoskevin i don't know about execute man. I feel you. But doing that would just be the same thing the N. koreans are doing. We don't want to be like them. You agree?
why are americans so obsessed with the words 'free country'? do they forget the McCarthy witch hunts? the treatment of african americans? the treatment of the south? mass consumerism and advertising? votes disappearing in elections? the most right wing religious western country? europe is more free, to do and say as we please. sounds to me lie N.korea is almost like a mirrored version of somebody else!
@technical010 that is a good start but these people have no idea what the outside world looks like or functions. There would massive re-education programs to get them all to adjust to the rest of the Asian countries that surround them.
Sounds like a good plan, However they would need to make sure the blood sucking Corps don't buy the country for a cheap bargin, like they did with Soviet Union after its demise...
Oh... and most importantly keep those leeches out of the government!!!
@chica476 The Nazi's are evil bastards that killed thousands or even millions of jews and people who have disability or homosexuals yea killing people are so cool
North Korea has many beautiful buildings and sights. The government invests and has invested a lot of time and money in beautifying areas of the country, and making grand public spectacles for the people and world to see.
The regimes problem lies not in it's taste in architecture, but in it's style of governance and organization of priorities, lol.
@briantotse3 I guess, it's not that easy to make the right choice if you are in the same dire economic situation as North Korea. In fact, every choice is somehow wrong in certain aspects in that situation.
@Bobassa0903 A tree, no matter how dead, once lived. Those buildings are nothing short of artificial trees, giving a semblance of life yet have never lived at all.
@p14y2w1n Yet even an artificial tree contains beauty, though it has never breathed the breath of life. Is a statue not beautiful? Is a waterfall? Can not a building be, as well, though it has never felt life's gentle flow?
@Bobassa0903 It is but an illusion, a cosmetic beauty. It is beauty without substance, little more than a facade of throbbing, living exuberance and a lifeless, sterile husk.
North Koreans are all brainwashed to believe America is the devil and from birth you are brought up in a society where the cold war is very much alive. Everything thats wrong there they blame on America or anyone who doesn't follow the strict order of society. There's no WAY an American could venture into North Korea, even less so 43 years ago, and not become a very public and brutal example of what should be done to Americans. He just walked over the fucking DMZ! A South Korean can't do that!
AcerbicMotion 2 weeks ago
Bullshit! This is as fake as it gets! Nothing here is real I don't believe it... watch videos on North Koreans talking about North Korea. Don't watch a North Korean from Pyongyang either... the few selected thousands that live in that area have not even a high standard but a more than decent standard of living and they are all brainwashed high ranked political individuals. A north korean born in unfavorable circumstances can NEVER have this life. It is Disgusting the LIES this nation puts forth!
AcerbicMotion 2 weeks ago
i dont even bother to read the comments section, its pointless
MrHeadSet1 2 weeks ago
Why would an American citizen defected to North Korea? Either he really hates America or he's an undecover ClA agent.
elmano04 3 weeks ago
@elmano04 Apparently he was going to be court-martialed. He chose not to go to jail. It is a Federal crime, you know. It haunts you to your deathbed. Apparently, he doesn't regret it.
UbermenschWill 2 weeks ago
@UbermenschWill Federal crime or not, he only forged signatures. That doesn't haunt anyone, certainly not to their deathbeads! Hah, ridiculous!
MGSoldier 1 week ago
@MGSoldier
Are you effing kidding me?
I) Forging a signature is a criminal offense
II) He abandoned his post and left for the entire night. That is an even more serious crime.
III) A Federal crime, especially one connected to the army, will haunt you to your deathbed, no matter what you did.
The importance of the offense is not related to the consequences it might have on your criminal record.
If you're a soldier you should know that. Either do your job or defect to the DPRK.
UbermenschWill 1 week ago
@UbermenschWill No, are you kidding me? I mean are you being fucking serious or just joking? Forging signatures > haunts until you die? Wow... unbelievable. Besides, you learn forging signatures when you are a child.
MGSoldier 1 week ago
@MGSoldier Yes! Dude, seriously, you don't seem to understand; forging a signature as a soldier in order to get away from duty and to leave your post, especially in a dangerous place such as the DMZ is a very serious offence that will stain your criminal record permanently.
UbermenschWill 1 week ago
@elmano04 He didn't like his country no more and no secrets were given away.
v19d 2 weeks ago
@elmano04 His parents divorced when he was 10, he never saw his brother or mother again, placed in a foster home, dropped out of high school and his wife left him. Talk about bad luck....
dragonzzism 2 weeks ago
you can't get decent info from nk
MrUniversityplace 3 weeks ago
Dumbass.
LordPaynus 4 weeks ago
This has been flagged as spam show
Check my channel for a Documentary called Kimjongilia, it's about the North Korean Concentration / Labor Camps.
North Korea denies they exist... even with testimony from ex prisoners and escapees as well as Satellite Imagery of around 20 of these camps
Parag0n 4 weeks ago
3 op reis!
snhoOk 1 month ago
Other than having Christian Slater as the narrator this is has been a well done production so far. I've been curious about Mr. Dresnok for quite awhile.
acuriousbeast 1 month ago
looks like the famine escaped him.
Wolf78033 1 month ago
Why can't people just respect Dresnok's decision to accept his faith and that he is even content with it. Clearly some people like the idea that life is just simple in North Korea, some people just don't need internet and cell phones.
boulr 1 month ago
@boulr *faith* should be fate, sorry
boulr 1 month ago
@boulr They have cell phones and the internet in North Korea it's just regulated. But yes life is simple in North Korea everyone is given a job and a purpose in life to furfil forever. Some may crave competition and the ability to chose their own path and advancement but if people prefer to have a simple life and not crave more than that i say let them have it.
deaconkris 1 month ago
@deaconkris they allso crave healthcare,food and clean drinking water. which the Kim dynasty seems unable to supply to them.
Wolf78033 1 month ago
@Wolf78033 Everyone in North Korea gets free health care which is more than can be said for western countries. Stores in North Korea sell mineral water as a solution for the tap water lots of western countries also don't have clean drinking water. And the food shortages are mainly in hard to get to rural areas. Everyone also gets food and a place to live from the government. In the west if you can't pay you live on the streets and beg.
deaconkris 1 month ago
@deaconkris Are you effing drunk/insane? What you say might be true for the U.S., but we roll differently in Europe. We have free healthcare, we have clean drinking water, we are free to travel around the world and we can surf the net freely. You are either;
I) Ignorant about what life in the West truly is like (West=N & S America+Europe)
II) a DPRK propagandist.
Maybe both. Life in the DPRK isn't that great. Had you lived there, you'd know. Some may like it. Not all of us do.
UbermenschWill 1 month ago
@UbermenschWill The free healthcare in Europe is circumstantial and not free in all cases. In DPRK it is free for everyone. Europe has been busy following America's lead in pushing more people into private healthcare by making the free healthcare below par. Commercial healthcare for all is just around the corner. Also not every European country has clean drinking water. Spain for example.
deaconkris 1 month ago
Comment removed
UbermenschWill 4 weeks ago
This has been flagged as spam show
@deaconkris No. Healthcare is almost completely free in virtually all E.U countries. I am an European M.D., so trust me.
Plus, Spain has "clean drinking water". You've probably never been to Europe, have you?
UbermenschWill 4 weeks ago
@UbermenschWill I'm from the UK lol i live in Europe. If Spain has clean drinking water tell me why there are tons of signs telling me to not drink the tap water? Because it's unclean that's why. The healthcare system in several European countries is pushing private healthcare on people with a failing free healthcare system. And most people still have to pay for prescriptions.
deaconkris 4 weeks ago
@deaconkris Curiously I've never seen such signs in Spain. Where did you go?
You do realise that most DPRK households have no running water and electricity at all?
No one has to pay for prescription drugs in Europe. This is what tells prescription drugs apart from over-the-counter drugs. And most healthcare systems work incredibly well here.
UbermenschWill 4 weeks ago
@UbermenschWill And how many times have you been to DPRK? Funny how you make sweeping statements about a country you have never visited. Of course you have never seen them admitting that would mean you agreed with me on something and we cannot have that. What you said is not true for many countries where paying for perscriptions is means tested. Not free for everyone at all.
deaconkris 4 weeks ago
@UbermenschWill Also since we are doing comparisons look at the rise of the unemployed and the homeless in Europe. People left on the streets to rot in their own filth. in DPRK everyone is given a job and a home. Every human being is entitled to a purpose in life not just the rich elite of society. DPRK is not perfect but at least they don't abandon their own.
deaconkris 4 weeks ago
@deaconkris This isn't completely true. Yes, the unemployment rate is rising. No one is left "rotting in the streets".
Remember, you live in the most capitalist country in Europe. Things work differently on the mainland. In the DPRK, during the 1990's famine, thoudands of people actually died in the streets due to undernourishment. Their houses are dumps. I've been there twice, man.
BTW, I am a fierce socialist, not a conservative. Still, I can tell social justice apart from craziness.
UbermenschWill 4 weeks ago
@UbermenschWill Twice? You don't talk like somebody who has been there you talk like somebody who is just spouting the propaganda of your European overlords. Depends on your definition of a dump. They have everything needed and nothing more. Don't need to live in a mansion to have a nice home. The problem with most socialists is they want socialism but with all the consumerism they enjoy now. Can't have it both ways,You want the simple life or not.
deaconkris 4 weeks ago
@deaconkris Actually you can. Their neighbor China, is a communist government but follows a capitalist economic system. So now you have socialists living in mansions and houses, enjoying all the trappings of their American business partners.
North Korea on the other hand is an absolute pisshole. Everything you get is the bare minimum unless you are in a high position in the party, or shell out extra cash for extra benefits.
Lightscribe225 3 weeks ago
@Lightscribe225 Come on! Communism, is incompatible with the Chinese Communist Party. The PRC is only nominally a Communist country. Call it Capitalist. That's the truth.
UbermenschWill 2 weeks ago
@UbermenschWill Capitalist is an economic system. Do you call the British Parliament a capitalist system? American Congress?
What you have in China is the Chinese version of Socialism. Different, but effective on the account the government has done what it has done for the last 4000 years: Not give a shit about the populace and what they do.
Lightscribe225 2 weeks ago
@Lightscribe225 "Capitalist is an economic system. Do you call the British Parliament a capitalist system? American Congress?"
Indded I do.
Politics is only a myth. All that matters is the economic system a country chooses. Most of Europe is kind of socialist, whereas both the U.K. and the U.S. are right-winged, capitalist countries. China is more alike you guys than Sweden, Italy of France.
UbermenschWill 2 weeks ago
@deaconkris Dude, they have no clean running water, no heating, no electricity, barely enough food. Why are you ignoring that fact?
Dying in a street due to starvation is not "having all you need". Seriously, visit the place at least once.
Plus, the DPRK is a racist, xenophobic country. Not communist, at all.
I don't want consumerism, but I do want to live. If you like the DPRK, try out their lifestyle. Rent a 100 sq foot apartment infested with roaches and turn off the lights. Have fun.
UbermenschWill 3 weeks ago
@Wolf78033 A lot of these comments you make are typical of a person who has never seen North Korea for themselves and you believe all the propaganda. Perhaps you should do more research from fair a balanced people before believing what your masters tell you to believe.
deaconkris 1 month ago
Fuck, blocking the internet isn't such a bad idea. Look how stupid half of america is, I could show you my Facebook wall and you would see what I mean.
YBTHAROCKSTAR88 1 month ago
It's amazing how few people are out and about in the streets. It's like their all at home hiding... or in jail.
Noman0127 1 month ago
hes probably a deep cover spy tbh
Casemaster3000 1 month ago
In the free world,you can say "fuck kim" or "kim suck dead dick" without even getting thrown in jail.
jaredlee283 1 month ago
Comment removed
jxhensley 1 month ago
This has been flagged as spam show
@jaredlee283 In south Korea people are imprisoned for praising Kim Il-sung. Also the Lee Myung-bak group issues threats against groups that criticize the capitalist system, saying that they are "aiding the enemy" (an illegal act in south Korea)
jxhensley 1 month ago
Wait... they have macbooks in North Korea? "11:03"
SuperSoftware1234 2 months ago in playlist Crossing the Line, 2006
North korea Sucks
corbinadamwillis 2 months ago
This is a great film from what I see so far but North Korea does not represent anything that is communist.
tjmickquickeldickel 2 months ago
The fishing scene gave me goosebumps. I Hate being bored and simply "passing the time." I would never survive in the DPRK.
TheSanguineOne 2 months ago
Great post, I was compelled to watch the whole thing. BTW the video and audio are out of synch at least for parts 2 through 6. SPOILERS My personal opinion is the BBC was caught off guard when Jenkins was able to get out of there while filming as it was pretty sympathetic to Dresnok up until then. It was also nice to North Korea and never mentioned what life was like outside the capital which BTW is all you ever get to see on western TV. I suspect life outside the capital is a living hell. TY
verbusen 2 months ago
aren't there stories of each side snatching each others soldiers across the 38th parallel, he has been told what to say
MrNinetysixchamps 2 months ago
everything he says is cleared through the goverment! they train people to talk to outsiders, he has been trained!
spencerjustin420 2 months ago 17
@spencerjustin420 Why does he need training? What is he lying about?
jxhensley 1 month ago
@spencerjustin420 He is the other fat boy from NK
loh1110 1 month ago in playlist More videos from OneindigLaagland
Looks like il got in 2 dislikes before he left the earth a better place
drewsky684 2 months ago
This is an interesting documentary. No idea that an American was living in NK.
runimina 2 months ago
@runimina There was like five that defected around the same time. It's crazy shit
MentosMan727 2 months ago
This would make for a good movie
nutter69 2 months ago
Once the "Asian Spring" begins, this fat piece of shit and his family will be some of the first against the wall. I hope they make a documentary of that. LOL.
PaladinRS 2 months ago
@PaladinRS
You are an Imbecile.
5mnz7fg 2 months ago in playlist Dokus 2
I wonder if he knows about camp 22. This is disturbing.
apugh213 2 months ago
Take for a moment that what he says is true and the stories we are told by our govt. are false. What would you do?
perogi21 2 months ago
thanks for been. Been looking for it forever
sarabower1 3 months ago
I don't believe anything he says. This was filmed in North Korea. He was interviewed there. Everything he said would have been what he was told to say by the North Koreans. Maybe he truly does love North Korea, but I doubt it. I find my explanation far more plausible.
TarikGuy 3 months ago
crush capitalism. i support north korea
JisakuJ 3 months ago
@JisakuJ dont justify north korea because of your mistreatment by capitalism.
capitalism was not perfect nor was it intended to be the perfect system
at least capitalism is a hell of a lot more honest way of living....and no i never supported capitalism, i am a socialist at heart BUT i cant stand how the DPRK is misusing the marxism philosophy for their devilish ways of genocide. people are killed in Pyongyang for searching mice to eat...and you are worried if you can buy that new iphone or not
taproot12 2 months ago
@taproot12 you are wrong in every possible way conceivable
JisakuJ 2 months ago
@JisakuJ so enlighten me........why support Dprk
taproot12 2 months ago
@taproot12 to crush capitalism
JisakuJ 2 months ago
how do we know everything he's saying is legit. he is not going to bite the hand that feeds him or risk death
miamivicepastels83 3 months ago
bless your heart for posting this series............
miamivicepastels83 3 months ago
cut it out north korea.
a2r1v1i2s 3 months ago
AWESOME DOCUMENTARY. sad... but mind blowing.
a2r1v1i2s 3 months ago
Just show North Koreans kpop. They'll all want to go to South Korea then.
guitarhamster102 3 months ago
@guitarhamster102 North Koreans have been shown KPop. South Korean boy band played before a North Korean audience. And their reaction was almost universal: "What the fuck is this shit?"
Lightscribe225 3 weeks ago
Just give them uncensored internet access, and let them discover the truth for them selves. How could the people possibly support the state if they had access to free information? They are not stupid, just robbed of information. I believe the one true path to freedom for this people, is knowledge. Grant them access, and enlightenment is inevitable.
ragnarlava 4 months ago 31
@ragnarlava that's y they don't want them to have it. cause if they did.....who would willingly stay? they could start a revolution online and get foreign ally support all from being online.....raising awareness
miamivicepastels83 3 months ago
@ragnarlava when my history teacher gave us a list of what right i would give up last, i picked reading
if it weren't for reading, i wouldn't know of what happens around me
analivita 2 months ago
@ragnarlava Who are you suggesting should provide them with internet access? How is that logistically possible?
MentosMan727 2 months ago
@ragnarlava They have been brainwashed for years. The saddest thing is even if they had access to the informations, they wolud not belive it. Never. I feel really sorry for north korean people.
CaptchaLetters 2 months ago
@ragnarlava I agree that access to the Internet would help. However, it hardly guarantees anything. Most Americans have access to the Internet, but they still support people like Santorum, Bill O'Reilly etc. What's their excuse?
kuneen 1 month ago
@ragnarlava There is a South Korean organization that deploys balloons tied with hundreds of documents revealing the real NK and the outside world. The result? 80% of NK defectors that have made their successful escape to SK were people who have read these documents.
loh1110 1 month ago in playlist More videos from OneindigLaagland
@ragnarlava That isn't completely true. Many DPRK citizens are aware of what life in the rest of the world is like. They still believe the propaganda because they received a Kim-family centred education, which made them believe they believe they are the best people in the world and that the U.S. are looking forward to corrupting their superior blood. Virtually, a country based on indoctrination and rascism. Your thoery is wrong, I am sorry to say. Believe me.
UbermenschWill 1 month ago
Thousands of children dying RIGHT NOW of starvation, and look at him. He is probably lying about everything. No, not probably. Right; "I removed my tattoo willingly" (later in the film). What do you want to bet he regrets this every day of his life?
mechatech70 4 months ago
This has been flagged as spam show
Dresnok came from broken homes and the lower, lowest rung of the 99% society. Joe would now be in prison, wasting away until death. I cannot judge him, because I haven't walked a mile in his shoes. To the consternation and bedevilment of his so-called moral peers; Joe Dresnok is a traitor to America! The 1% of fat cats, aristocrats have utter disdain for a peasant who would not stay in the gutter to please them. I would have not chosen his path at all; but Dresnok has made a life for his own.
BearyHairy 4 months ago in playlist BearyHairy's favorites
I would live in N. Korea myself, but I hate lies and no freedom to be yourself is not my thing it is just interesting how the gove. is protecting an "enemy" I don't get it hahah
JesusGodHolySpirit3 4 months ago
@JesusGodHolySpirit3 You Already live in a place like that.
iippo06 4 months ago
this is got to be the dumbest man on earth
ukusapillage 5 months ago
@ukusapillage
if he finds comfort there then so be it, i myself wouldnt mind living in north korea. then again im not the most fond of the us in any way
th3shameless 4 months ago
7:10 "But in the military, you don't have no freedom"
Glad this guy's teaching English over there.
Stev02112 5 months ago
He looks like he has not missed any meals.
Jane14161 5 months ago
@SeanP7195 will that documentary babout the us or the uk?
gaiusscipio 5 months ago
who will go to NK except a 20 year old stupid American? He likes it there because they fed him, he grew double chin. And of course he was being used as North Koreans propaganda. If North Koreans put him in jail, i swear he will not like it. And maybe dying to go back to US.
Polishspring 6 months ago
@Polishspring he was abused in the u.s by foster families. He probably felt betrayed as a kid.
Burikami 6 months ago
usa... soooo diwrty!
wblakesx 6 months ago
No way, another British Documentary trying to make America look bad. I mean really, what are the chances? I'm gonna do a documentary entitled, "How to go from worlds superpower to developing nation marred in riots in only 2 generations"
SeanP7195 6 months ago
@SeanP7195
It's not another British documentary trying to make America look bad. It's just a fact that a US soldier decided to defect to the North Koreans. The one whose doing the bad mouthing in this documentary is ironically an American.
NeoFalcon69 5 months ago
@SeanP7195 In what possible way is this attacking America? It's an interesting documentary of someone who went the other way.
In no way is this Britain slagging America, in fact I'd love to see these other documentaries that you speak of. I can only think of Michael Moore slagging America in documentaries.
pjmcc1uk 5 months ago
@SeanP7195 it's really not hard to make America look bad. There are a lot of American documentaries that manage it as well
Jonny3663 5 months ago
Its funny how the only American to ever experiance North Korea says it great and we automatticaly think HES BRAINWASHED!!!!!!!! lol
MrCaracas1000 6 months ago
@MrCaracas1000 That's because Dresnok is still living there. You should read Charles Robert Jenkins' account, since he is an American who was kept in North Korea for years (along with Dresnok) and then got out to Japan with his wife, a kidnapped Japanese citizen brought in by the DPRK to help train spies. But why look at both sides of the story when it doesn't fit your point of view?
zorak1997 6 months ago
@zorak1997 I dont think hes lying but I take into account his position
There was an arrest warrent for him under the Bush administration
Would telling stories of supposed horrors in North Korea get him public sympathy, that perhaps would keep him from being arrested/?
MrCaracas1000 6 months ago
@MrCaracas1000 I hadn't heard of this arrest warrant between 2001-2009. Can you please provide proof of it?
I suppose with your last sentence you are implying that Jenkins lied about his life in the worker's paradise of the DPRK just to get a lighter sentence from the US Army? So to you (an apparent ideologue) Dresnok is telling the truth but Jenkins is a liar?
zorak1997 6 months ago
@zorak1997 Im not saying hes a liar im just saying he had a reason to describe and probibly exagreatte stories about life in the DPRK to gain public sympathy, did you even watch the whole movie?
MrCaracas1000 6 months ago
@MrCaracas1000 Oh please, you're an ideologue for totalitarian states that you would never dare to live in. You were clearly implying that Jenkins lied, especially if you say that you believe Dresnok.
Also, I'm still waiting for that proof of the arrest warrant for Dresnok.
zorak1997 6 months ago
@zorak1997 You do realize that Jenkins was arrested by the Bush administration it in the video.
MrCaracas1000 6 months ago
@MrCaracas1000 I think we got crossed up there. When you mentioned "he" had an arrest warrant from the Bush administration I thought you were referring to Dresnok, as I'd referred to both him and Jenkins in my previous post. I would therefore like to buy you a one-way ticket to Pyongyang.
zorak1997 6 months ago
@zorak1997 strawman arguement.
MrCaracas1000 6 months ago
@MrCaracas1000 And you're nothing more than a puppet for totalitarianism who has no original thoughts. You'd fit right in with the DPRK.
zorak1997 6 months ago
@zorak1997 Lol dude you lose. You failed to conjur up a decent arguemant and resorted to strawman arguemants faill.
MrCaracas1000 6 months ago
@MrCaracas1000 Yaaaaawwwwnnnn.... You have no valid argument, you just toe the Kim Party Line, then you delcare victory and leave the field. You're such a pussy, puppet boy.
zorak1997 6 months ago
@zorak1997 and I have a gopood freind who went the the DPRK he said he was aloud to travel the countryside and it was quite nice.
MrCaracas1000 6 months ago
@MrCaracas1000 Congrats on having a friend. A "gopood" friend at that. Well, puppet boy, I've been to the DPRK myself and it blows. The countryside is absolute misery, unless you enjoy bathing in dirty rivers, having no electricity, but have a government fatherly enoug to post "revolutionary" slogans in your crappy town just to remind you that you live eternally in 1984.
zorak1997 6 months ago
@zorak1997 Lol so your account is completely accurate and unbiased but his is Communist propoganda good to know,
MrCaracas1000 6 months ago
@MrCaracas1000 Have you even read your own posts? I'm sure that both you and your "virtual friend" can spout nothing but propaganda for communism. Don't you find it ironic that you and your comrades defend the Cultural Revolution and the Great Leap Forward while people in modern China condemn both as failures? Oh wait, that would require analytical thinking and self-evaluation - or enemies of the state to someone like you.
zorak1997 6 months ago
@zorak1997 Oh and im sure youve given a complete critical anylisis to the hanous war crimes commited by South Korean troops, you have nothing intellegent left to say so dotn waste my time
MrCaracas1000 6 months ago
@MrCaracas1000 As if you do anything constructive with your time?
Ahh, yes. I guess you think I'm not "intellegent" enough to converse with you about "hanous" war crimes, "anylisis" or how to turn off spell-check.
You are one angry little puppet.
P.S. You don't know the meaning of a straw man defense.
zorak1997 6 months ago
@zorak1997 I just dont get why you wish to prolong this.
We had an arguemant about the defectors, you turned out to be wrong.
But you cant just leave it at that you have to spout a bunch of stupid shit thats completely irrelevant to the defectors Just stop wasting my time
MrCaracas1000 6 months ago
@MrCaracas1000 Oh right - because in your pea-sized brain you convincingly "won" our argument and proved that Jenkins is a liar, Dresnok's word is gospel, and there's no oppression in the beautiful countryside of the DPRK?? Just like how your hero Kim Il-Sung defeated the Japanese single-handedly in World War II, and then annihilated the Americans in the "Victorious Fatherland Liberation War". Assuredly a double rainbow was in the sky when you were born, too!! Derrrr.....
zorak1997 6 months ago
well im sure its fun to be in such a prominent position as ordinary guy if you can look past the evil commie terror that goes on there. so from this point of view i can understand the guy but then i could not sleep at night because my consience would eat me alive if i would be in his place ._.
happosai27 7 months ago
i think we should also look to crimes of our own governments rather than point the finger and participate in the spiral of hatred that dogs humanity. north korea, u.s.a., u.k., it doesn't matter where you are all governments are corrupt. some give more of an illusion of freedom than others.
MrJellyintheoven 7 months ago
@MrJellyintheoven lol uh, you cant compare NK's government to ANYONE elses. be real
TEHWEEZY 7 months ago
@TEHWEEZY
that's why i said some governments are more corrupt than others. and, yes, you can compare. didn't i do that in my previous comment? the north korean government.. as "evil" as they are.. are human beings just like the rest of us.. yes? so don't judge them. maybe if you were in their position you might be the same way. power changes people dramatically.
MrJellyintheoven 7 months ago
@MrJellyintheoven There are plenty of people in this world that have power. Why arent they doing evil things to their own people too? A government that feels like having a staring contest over an imaginary line without ever speaking is ridiculous. Especially when they torture their own people in private prison camps set up all around. Oh, and the whole "theyre human beings too" seems like youre just being biased.
TEHWEEZY 7 months ago
@TEHWEEZY
excuse me but the US and UK goverments have both done wicked things to their own people too. for example.. the british goverment have admitted that between 1940 and 1979 they tested biological weapons (chemtrails) on their own citizens without permission. you can google this and you will find it in the mainstream media. another example to quote the BBC..
MrJellyintheoven 7 months ago
@TEHWEEZY
and i am not defending the north korean government.. or saying that they aren't crazy Orwellian type big brother facists.. but my point was that instead of poking our noses into the affairs of other countries why don't we look to ourselves and our own governments.
MrJellyintheoven 7 months ago
@MrJellyintheoven Poking our noses into the the affairs of other countries? You think its just the United States that wants the NK government disbanded? Go do research about that
TEHWEEZY 7 months ago
@TEHWEEZY
"More than 60,000 Americans were sterilised, many against their will, as part of a eugenics movement that finished in 1979, aimed at keeping the poor and mentally ill from having children".
and i never said the united states were the only ones who were criticising north korea. many countries are criticising north korea.
MrJellyintheoven 7 months ago
@MrJellyintheoven lol. youre talking about something that was going on over 30 years like its going to support anything youve been talking about. OF COURSE IM TALKING ABOUT GOVERNMENT ISSUES IN 2011. This debate is over #Winning
TEHWEEZY 7 months ago
@TEHWEEZY
it doesn't matter what i say you'll just keep on arguing. you have an answer for everything.
MrJellyintheoven 7 months ago
Traitor! Execute him! Firing squad!
Jsledge85 7 months ago
As a US Marine, I literally would execute this guy the first chance I had. I agree with the other comment, his eyes cannot hide what he really feels. Even with his life of privilege in DPRK, it does not compare to one day on US Soil.
bartoskevin 8 months ago
@bartoskevin actually you sound no different from those communist idiots.
PlasticFrog 7 months ago
@bartoskevin i don't know about execute man. I feel you. But doing that would just be the same thing the N. koreans are doing. We don't want to be like them. You agree?
Gzuzluvzu 7 months ago
Mind alteration?
He says and does exactly what he is supposed to do.
roosterwes 8 months ago
How nice that Mr. Dresnok is shown using a Macintosh laptop, a high tech product of the capitalist system the country he fled to hates.
Except for Kim Jong-Il, the uber-capitalist.
BoyScout1960 8 months ago
Well, he doesn't look like he's starving.
Lunarvx22 8 months ago 7
What is the story behind the clip at 8:03? Looks interesting
flametaledfox 8 months ago
why are americans so obsessed with the words 'free country'? do they forget the McCarthy witch hunts? the treatment of african americans? the treatment of the south? mass consumerism and advertising? votes disappearing in elections? the most right wing religious western country? europe is more free, to do and say as we please. sounds to me lie N.korea is almost like a mirrored version of somebody else!
tvanalogue 8 months ago 2
if he didn't like America, why didn't he just stay in South Korea? It's Korea, just without that BS military stuff.
AbercrombieQT88 8 months ago
0:49 look they have medals for wiping their own ass or getting someone else to do it...damn lucky Nurf Koreans
1939dannyboy 9 months ago
dresnok eyes cannot hide loneliness and sadness no matter how much he claimed to be happy and no regret.
primus9370 9 months ago 2
How WOULD North Korea become PARADISE?
Remove Kim Jong il.. Remove excessive budget for military in North Korea
Remove the Gulags and Concentration Camps..
Transfer $1 billion for food program.. and get going like nothing happened
Allow the people to have religion.. give them safe internet
Remove $1 billion from military expenditure and give it to oil and energy
Stop making nukes and just fucking trade with good countries
North Korea will be a paradise.. from 30% hungry people
to zero.
technical010 9 months ago 7
@technical010 that is a good start but these people have no idea what the outside world looks like or functions. There would massive re-education programs to get them all to adjust to the rest of the Asian countries that surround them.
ppks007 7 months ago
@ppks007
5 years of massive training will do.. and it would take only $500 million for 5 years
for the 15 million city dwelling North Koreans to understand things outside.. then just share the idea
to the other 10 million on the country side.. little by little they will understand.
First we must educate them about the good points of capitalism and the bad points
so they wont end up as fucked up as others.. so they include a limited extent of capitalism
and open for freedom
technical010 7 months ago
@ppks007 They need the Asian neighboring countries to do this. A white man from USA would be disrespectful in a way, dont you think?.
TEHWEEZY 7 months ago
@technical010
Sounds like a good plan, However they would need to make sure the blood sucking Corps don't buy the country for a cheap bargin, like they did with Soviet Union after its demise...
Oh... and most importantly keep those leeches out of the government!!!
Corporatism has ruined the US!!!
jd007200 5 months ago
@technical010 you also forgot about removing forced abortion and prostitution as well as loosening up on the public executions
Kuato19 4 months ago
@Kuato19
Thats included in the removal of GULAGS and CONCENTRATION CAMPS
If you would try to dig deeper in my thoughts LMAO
technical010 4 months ago
you mean gas was below a dollar a gallon once wow lol
SleazeThrobb12345 10 months ago
A war between NK and the US will not be pretty. They are ready...to pop a cap up in some American ass. Scary.
crysta2k2 10 months ago
1:40 They are all wearing gangster hats
Al Kha-poung and his cronies, LOL !
Ihateflagging123 10 months ago
Damn even the fish looks oppressed there! 07:33
RelativistSlayer 1 year ago 2
@RelativistSlayer Kim Jong 'Eel'
p14y2w1n 11 months ago
They made all videos of the DPRK grey, while the records from the US are with color...simple tricks of propaganda
stimmekoreas 1 year ago 4
@stimmekoreas
The Nazis were pretty cool though.
chica476 10 months ago
@chica476 How can you say that Nazis were pretty cool you moronic brain frozen asshole !!!!
calisse245 10 months ago
@chica476 The Nazi's are evil bastards that killed thousands or even millions of jews and people who have disability or homosexuals yea killing people are so cool
Becky123190 7 months ago
I don't care what anybody thinks about the matter, Christian Slater is a fuckin badass
Tron9222 1 year ago
Thanks for this video. It is so fascinating.
DAH404 1 year ago
ps. those are actually some beautiful buildings. Ironic, I suppose.
Bobassa0903 1 year ago 20
@Bobassa0903
North Korea has many beautiful buildings and sights. The government invests and has invested a lot of time and money in beautifying areas of the country, and making grand public spectacles for the people and world to see.
The regimes problem lies not in it's taste in architecture, but in it's style of governance and organization of priorities, lol.
briantotse3 1 year ago
@briantotse3 I guess, it's not that easy to make the right choice if you are in the same dire economic situation as North Korea. In fact, every choice is somehow wrong in certain aspects in that situation.
Scorpitarios 1 year ago
@Bobassa0903 They're hollow and just for show, as you may've known
p14y2w1n 11 months ago
@p14y2w1n I'm aware. But a hollow tree, however dead and dormant, still stands tall and beautiful. I suppose those buildings are the same.
Bobassa0903 11 months ago
@Bobassa0903 A tree, no matter how dead, once lived. Those buildings are nothing short of artificial trees, giving a semblance of life yet have never lived at all.
p14y2w1n 11 months ago
@p14y2w1n Yet even an artificial tree contains beauty, though it has never breathed the breath of life. Is a statue not beautiful? Is a waterfall? Can not a building be, as well, though it has never felt life's gentle flow?
Bobassa0903 11 months ago
@Bobassa0903 It is but an illusion, a cosmetic beauty. It is beauty without substance, little more than a facade of throbbing, living exuberance and a lifeless, sterile husk.
p14y2w1n 11 months ago