According to “Children of the Secret State,” a documentary that focuses specifically on children in North Korea, the reality of life under the regime of Kim Jong Il is vastly different than what the government would have visitors believe. Students had the opportunity to learn more about these discrepancies at a screening of the documentary on Tuesday. Hosted by Awareness of Relations in East Asia (AREA), the event also included an open discussion and brief statements by former Professor of East Asian Studies Yoshiko Samuel and Visiting Assistant Professor of Government Jun Saito.

The documentary, by Joe Layburn and the Hardcash team, starts off with video footage made by a North Korean man under the pseudonym Ahn Chol. Chol used a secret camera to record starving, abandoned children in the streets. Delirious and weak with hunger, they do not respond to Chol’s questions of “Where are your parents?” and “Where do you live?” If they respond at all, the answer is usually that they have no parents and no home.

Chol works under a pseudonym because if the government knew what he was doing, he could become one of North Korea’s 200,000 political prisoners and face torture or execution. Both of Chol’s parents died of starvation.

What follows are images that, according to the documentary, the North Korean government wants the outside world to believe. Layburn and his camerawoman pose as tourists, since foreign journalists are not allowed into the country. As part of their tour, they are treated to large meals, and they view elaborate performances by children that Kim Jong Il “has decided to favor.” These skilled, well-fed children contrast starkly with the images of the weak and helpless street kids who are continually shown.

The film follows Layburn and his crew as they travel around North Korea. They do not stay in one place too long for fear of revealing their identity as journalists, and they eventually go to China and South Korea to interview refugees. The interviews yield harrowing tales of a totalitarian regime under economic stress. Some speak about children being forced into hostels and given mere spoonfuls of food, dying if they stay and dying if they attempt to escape.

Some of the film’s most powerful footage concerns one guard relating tales from a prison camp, describing how prisoners would be forced to stone one another. The guard also spoke about how entire families would be sent to camps for crimes they did not know of. One particularly harrowing story described the time he stumbled upon the body of a pregnant woman with maggots crawling out of her stomach and a shovel thrust up her vulva.

Another interviewee recounts tales of human flesh for sale, sometimes marketed as pork. This is not the first time Layburn had heard about cannibalism.

“Again and again refugees speak to me of this,” he said in the film.

One farmer expresses guilt about being forced by the government to grow opium when he could be growing food.

“U.S. military officials have estimated North Korea’s revenue from illegal drugs is between 500 million and a billion dollars a year,” Layburn said.

Layburn also explains several of the roadblocks to solutions, such as the fact that refugees found in China are deported back to North Korea.

Sending aid to North Korea has its problems too. According to the documentary, North Korea already receives more food than almost any other country. However, some believe that the government is diverting the food aid to other sources such as its military. This has led several organizations backing out of sending food aid. As of the documentary’s release, the U.S. had cut fuel aid but continues to give food.

The discussion that followed the film included students offering personal anecdotes of experiences in North Korea or with North Koreans. A shared experience among travelers to North Korea was that waiters begged them not to give tips, especially not in American money, for fear of getting in trouble. Students also shared concerns over discrimination against North Koreans and what some see as a lackluster U.S. response.

“I guess it just frustrates me that we spent a lot of time and energy, the Americans particularly, basically destabilizing the Middle East while we completely ignore this problem that has been going on for a decade,” said Dave Woo ’08. “I’m a South Korean myself, and I’ve heard stories about people eating other people, and this isn’t new.”

Saito, too, saw similar images.

“And besides that, I also have to emphasize in totalitarian regimes like North Korea, violations of children’s rights are very common,” he said.

Saito maintained we should focus on learning more about what makes North Korea’s regime different from others.

“We need to figure out what is idiosyncratic [about North Korea,]” he said.