North Korea | So many things you will never know

The Parade The ground started to shake and ripple under your feet as the tanks started to roll by,the street filled with thick clouds of diesel fumes.Alongside the thunderous noise you could still here the cheering. large groups of school children were trying to out sing or out screen each other, parents, grandparents waving plastic flowers some resembling mechanical toys,they lined the streets for as far as you could see.The tanks were followed by missile launchers,rockets, artillary canons and finally a never ending convoy of open top trucks filled with cheering soldiers.the whole parade had been delayed for hours due to a few clouds in the sky so by the time it had passed by it was completly dark.Finally as the convoy started to thin out the heavens opened up.the wind picked up and it poured down.For a while everyone remained in place and kept cheering what was left of the Korean Peoples Army and then like a giant herd of startled wilderbeast everyone was on the move.I took refuge in the middle of a brass band who had held their ground.The police were still frantically blowing their whistles trying to keep some order,in this chaos the brass band were still playing.I looked around it looked like a scene from Titanic. At some point I felt a hand on my shoulder,It was a very relieved Mr Pak my Korean guide,he told me the whole group had been waiting on the bus for over an hour to leave.Too bad I thought knowing to well that going to A mass parade is the only opportunity your ever get as a tourist to wander around freely on your own in the highly controlled state of The Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea When travelling around North Korea the two english words you will probrually hear more than any other will be No Photo.The general rules layed down by the korean guides are not to take photos of people in military uniform,construction sights or images of what they percieve to be of poverty.This makes filming In the country pretty challenging,images of what many westerners including myself see as being oldschool,rectro rustic and unspoilt completly confuse the koreans who would much rather you took images of the statues of their dear leaders,monuments and newly constructed appartment blocks. Ive always just used a DSLR to shoot video in NK,it seems to draw less attention. Beyond all the propaganda, and facades you encounter in North korea.The natural wonders that the country holds are undeniably beautifull and as for the people,everything they do is done with so much dedication,dertimination, and a togetherness that ive never encounterd before. Camera; Pierre Depont Edit; Thijs Rigterink Poem: http://www.freesound.org/people/fiatknox/ MAGENTA FILMS Images from North Korea instagram pdp_photography