The Real Dr Evil - Kim Jong II of North Korea a state of total disaster and corruption. the entire population is raped and brainwashed by the leader Kim Jong II. The Real Dr Evil was broadcast on BBC Two on Sunday, 20 July, 2003 at 1915 BST. North Korea was identified as part of the axis of evil by George Bush. Taking an archive based trip through North Korea's recent history, we find out it's probably a fair assessment. Includes great footage of Kim Jong Il, Kim Il Sung, private bodyguards training and Korean nuclear facilities.

With Saddam Hussein gone, North Korea's Kim Jong-il is regarded as the world's most dangerous man. Millions have died of famine and dissidents are sent to labour camps or executed. Now Kim says he has nuclear weapons and he's prepared to sell them to whoever can afford his price. US President George Bush put North Korea on the Axis of Evil shortlist. Newsweek magazine dubbed Kim "Dr Evil", a reference to the Hollywood character who plots to destroy the planet. Correspondent tracked down the director and his movie star wife kidnapped by Kim to make films in North Korea, his former bodyguard, American diplomats who negotiated with him, and an Italian businessman who finances his goldmines. We charted Kim's progress from lazy student through terrorist mastermind to tough-talking nuclear brinksman. And we asked the question: is he really plotting to destroy the planet or is the nickname Dr Evil nothing more than a battle of words in the Cold War's last frontier?

North Korean President Kim Jong-il, widely regarded as the world's most dangerous man, was dubbed "Dr Evil" by Newsweek magazine in January this year. The reference was to a fictitious Hollywood film character who plots to destroy the planet, in the style of a James Bond villain. As well as being on the US "Axis of Evil" shortlist, Kim Jong-il's regime may have nuclear material that it is willing to sell.

Kim Jong Il was born in 1942 and the leader of North Korea (1994- ). Kim Jong Il succeeded his father, Kim Il Sung, who had ruled North Korea since 1948. Kim Jong Il was born in Siberia near Khabarovsk, in what was then the Soviet Union near the border with Manchuria. During World War II (1939-1945) Kim’s father led a Communist guerrilla group fighting against Japanese forces in Manchuria. In 1945 Kim’s family returned to Korea, with his father being honored as a war hero. Kim Il Sung became premier of North Korea in 1948, after Korea was divided into two countries; a year later he became the top leader of North Korea’s Communist party, the Korean Workers’ Party (KWP). During the Korean War (1950-1953) Kim’s father placed him in safety in Northeast China. Kim attended Kim Il Sung University from 1960 to 1964, earning a degree in political economics, before going to work at the headquarters of the KWP.

In 1973 Kim was elected party secretary in charge of organization and propaganda. He was given high ranking in the Politburo, the party's principal policymaking body, and achieved membership on the Central People’s Committee in 1980. From then on the state-controlled media increasingly referred to him as “Dear Leader.” In 1990 he was appointed to his father’s first state post as first vice chairman of the National Defense Commission. The following year he was named supreme commander of the Korean People's Army, a post held by his father since 1948. He was appointed to the rank of marshal, with his father as grand marshal, in 1992.

Prior to his death on July 8, 1994, Kim Il Sung officially designated his son as his successor, effecting the first hereditary transfer of power in a Communist state. After his death, North Korea observed an official mourning period that lasted for three years. During this period, Kim Jong Il was the country’s de facto leader. In October 1997 he was appointed general secretary of the KWP, effectively assuming formal leadership of the country. The following year North Korea revised its constitution to recognize the chair of the National Defense Commission, a post held by Kim Jong Il, as the country’s “highest office.”

Aquiet revolution is beginning to emerge in North Korea. The one-hour documentary North Korea: Desperate or Deceptive probes into this closed society like never before to examine its changing social, political and economic landscape. Although fearful of change, North Korea is resigned to the fact that without adapting, change will ultimately invade and possibly defeat the regime. Canadian journalist Martin Himel profiles a military officer who defends the need for a nuclear armed military at the expense of economical development. Himel takes an unprecedented tour of hospitals and schools that lack the fundamental basics to provide health care and education and meets a man who escaped from the Gulag to South Korea. The documentary features candid interviews with doctors, teachers, principals and students who talk openly about the terrible problems. The documentary also takes a rare look into the arts and discovers a much more human side of North Korean life. Private limited markets and the development of huge industrial zones are smashing the facade of the monolithic North Korean state seen marching through central Pyongyang year after year. While experimenting with the Chinese model of change, North Korea does not want to evaporate like East Germany, and many in South Korea do not want to have the burden of a West Germany. Gradual change through intensive investments is preferable to many in the South and the North. But is North Korea changing out of desperation or deception? While burdened economically, its Gulag prison camps still flourish. It is also arming with nuclear weapons. North Korea: Desperate or Deceptive? is produced by Elsash Productions and directed and written by Martin Himel. He has covered the Mideast for more than 20 years and has reported for Global National as well as CTV, CBC, FOX and ABC.

Children of the Secret State is a documentary on homeless North Korean orphans. It was shot by a UK film duo in conjunction with underground North Korean cameramen. The movie opens with a clip of orphan children by Ahn Chol and speaks of the humanitarian situation in the country, and then introduces Ahn Chol, who has provided the covertly filmed footage of the children. Joe Layburn, who also narrates the movie, and his camerawoman, Anna Roberts, are then introduced, on their way into Pyongyang. Posing as tourists, they are to get an official tour of the country. Joe Layburn states that Pyongyang is 'like a multi-million dollar film set' and that the atmosphere is 'eerie'. The movie shows the empty streets and unused fun fair and hotels, as well as the well cared-for 'children of the elite', whom he contrasts with footage of starving orphans filmed by Ahn Chol. Layburn and Roberts then travel across the border to China to rendezvous with Ahn Chol and document the border and border town, using their own footage and interviews and the footage provided by Ahn Chol. Ahn Chol, who planned to meet up with the couple at the border, fails to turn up, but Layburn proceeds to interview refugees who have fled into China from North Korea. He then heads for South Korea and makes more interviews. They also interview a man who has fled a factory complex, as well as a former North Korean prison guard. These interviews cover the well-guarded Chinese-North Korean border, the starvation in North Korea, and hostels where, according to Layburn and the children interviewed, (paraphrased) 'orphan children are deliberately left to die'. He also states that the factories, and most industry, in the country have stopped running - this is later referred to by Layburn as (paraphrased) 'the crisis in the North Korean economy'. An interviewed farmer who states that most North Korean food-producing farms have been made to produce opium for the profit of party officials, and several refugees speak of inhuman treatment in North Korea's prison camps. By the end of the movie, the fate of Ahn Chol was still undetermined, but it was later revealed that he eventually managed to escape, and that he still films in North Korea.

More on North Korea overhere.....