Horrifying footage of North Korea smuggled out through China

a dejected and apparently emaciated woman is seen scavenging for grass to feed her animals. Asked what she herself eats at home, she pauses before replying flatly: "Nothing."...

The woman seen scavenging for grass in a field in South Pyongan Province is unaware she is being filmed with a miniaturised video camera. Filthy and thin, she tells the interviewer that she is 23. Asked where her father is, she replies that he is dead. The interviewer gets the same answer when he inquires after her mother

But there's signs of resistance as well: one woman is videotaped screaming at a police officer for trying to demand a bribe. When others come to her aid and also start berating the officer, he backs off. Says Jiro Ishimaru, a man who has been helping escaped North Korean citizens return to the country to do this dangerous sort of journalism (he says he never asks them to, but waits for them to approach him to learn), that scene is reminiscent of a populace no longer willing to suffer quietly. "The authorities no longer command the fear and respect of the people... That's an enormous change that is taking place in North Korea."

For further information check out Rimjin-gang, a publication on North Korea written by local journalists that do so at the risk of their own lives.

The terrible conditions there, coupled with the recent troubles North Korea has been causing, makes not only the international press, but people inside China wonder: why exactly does China still support this insane neighbor? Caijin Magazine has a thought:

In the words of U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, when asked why America supported one of the deadliest dictators in Latin America, “He may be a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch.” Similarly, North Korea is China’s son of a bitch.