The North Koreans

North Koreans didn't know that man had landed on the Moon

because the men landed on the Moon were Americans, so they were they weren't told.

The level of the compartmentalization of information is just phenomenal.

The things that they don't know that we take for granted.

If they knew freedom, they would want it.

North Korea could have become anything.

But helmed by Kim Jong-il, it would turn towards paranoia, secrecy, and terror.

Because he never really left North Korea, he took what he saw in Hollywood films to beat realism.

North Korea became very good at selling drugs and making and selling counterfeit $100 bills, trafficking.

People in ivory and later nuclear secrets and weapons, anything that a criminal empire would do.

And it was all backed up with the state's might.

My name is Paul McGinn, and welcome to Real Dictators,

the series that explores the hidden lives of tyrants such as Adolf Hitler, Chairman Mao, and Joseph Stalin.

You'll be right there in their meeting rooms and private quarters, on the battlefields and in their bunkers,

up close and personal with some of history's most evil leaders.

We'll take you behind the curtain, beyond the propaganda and the myth making,

to hear the real stories of their totalitarian regimes.

In this episode, we trace the story of the man who built a volatile rogue state

with nuclear missiles trained on its enemies, all while living a life of the utmost luxury.

He was having lobster flown in from wherever he was dining on French wine.

He was Hennessy's largest single paying customer.

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