Society - Bad Borders

North Korea is one of the most totalitarian countries on Earth. Its people suffer from political despotism, severe underdevelopment and starvation so its not surprising that every year thousands of people try to defect the country. Now, escaping is difficult enough, but arriving to a secure place, as the documentary shows, is even more arduous. To desert North Korea, you cant just jump over the fence into South Korea. That is, except if youre eager to cross fields of landmines, predators, and North Korean military with pretty loose rules of engagement. So most of the renegades head for China, but theyre not quite welcoming. The Chinese authorities deny giving North Koreans exile status, partly because they see North Korea as a safeguard between them and the capitalist South Korea. So if a North Korean is detained in China, they get deported back where they came from. Those who manage to slip through the net have to entrust themselves to an organization of human traffickers and dealers to lead them out of the country. In this documentary, VICE also went to Kashmir to see just how dangerous the conflict between India and Pakistan is getting. Some say, it is the most risky border on the planet. India and Pakistan really dont like each other. Now, this hatred begun when Mahatma Gandhi eventually triumphed in gaining independence from Great Britain. And in the following anarchy, while they were trying to build a new State, Indias Muslims demanded to establish their own country. As a result, millions of Hindus and Sikhs escaped to India, and at the same time, millions of Indias Muslims migrated to the just established Pakistan. Now, while this partition was taking place, tens of millions of people were displaced. And, meanwhile, over a million people on both sides were brutally killed in one big religious rampage. India and Pakistan have been hostile ever since. The focus of this chronic conflict is Kashmir, a mostly Muslim area that is somewhat occupied by India.