Monty Python...North Korea style. Say what?!

Yep...Michael Palin...one of the two or three funniest guys from the original "Monty Python" crew, recently received unprecedented access to the prison country of North Korea. It's a fascinating article with some decent photos, showing the 75-year-old Palin enjoying a long stint in Kim Jong-Un's secret Communist "paradise."

(Michael Palin...then...and now:)

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-6155405/Michael-Palin-granted-unique-access-North-Korea-latest-show.html

Pailn admits that he was constantly "handled" by six or seven representatives of the government, and that the places where he was allowed to visit were strictly monitored and scripted, and yet he emerged from the trip confident that the people there aren't brainwashed. (I am not sure how you can decide that if you know you are only visiting approved locations and seeing approved North Koreans, but that was Palin's impression.)

Like many westerners, I suppose, I am fascinated by secret places, but I do know that their dear leader is the only FAT North Korean I have ever seen anywhere, on-line, anyways. I also have watched enough documentaries involving people who have successfully fled the country to know that Mr. Palin has a lot more research to do before deciding that people there aren't routinely brainwashed.

(Image courtesy of express.co.uk.)

Still, I greatly appreciate anyone willing to go there and share their experiences. We can only improve relations by mutual understanding. North Koreans, especially, desperately need whatever contact they can get with the outside world. Let's hope that Mr. Palin gets to go back some time in the future when things are no longer completely government-controlled... and scripted so that he doesn't see the few inner-city people who aren't actually already starved to death out picking worms from the ground in order to supplement their very meager "diet."

(Image courtesy of pinterest.com)