After a couple of other stops it was off to Pyongyang, capital of North Korea. Now, the general advice for would-be travellers in North Korea is “don’t go, unless you have to”. But this cheery tag line got even more sour just days before the duo arrived in the country.
US citizen Merrill Newman (85) a Korean War veteran was detained in North Korea and the State Department was telling all US citizens to back off big time. Just a big “no, no, no” basically. But they carried on regardless, they’d come too far to just go home by this stage.
They were chaperoned around the country as is the norm in North Korea. The government might let you in but they sure as hell won’t let you see any real people and real places. You’ll look at their statues and marvel at their palaces and that’s where it ends. No day trips to the poor areas where the real people live. They don’t want you to think for a second that most of the country lives in abject poverty, no Sir.
Unlike Rodman, the surprisingly successful best time buddy of Kim Jong-un, Pacman and Peso did not have the fearless leader’s blessing. They didn’t have permission to film a rap video there either. Not at all. To add to that, in the preceding weeks they’d got press from Gawker and an interview with the BBC among others, so the project wasn’t exactly on the down low as they’d hoped.
You can check out a preview of the video on the next page…
☛ Read Next: 5 South Korean Super Star Celebrity Suicides
