[VIDEO] Kim Jong Il Operates a Web of North Korean Labor Camps in Siberia

Editor's Note: North Korean leader Kim Jong-il died of a heart attack at the age of 69, state media announced over the weekend. Today, we are showcasing a video produced in North Korea by VICE media.

The above video is the first in a four-part series called North Korean Labor Camps, an original documentary investigating Kim Jong-Il’s communities of secret indentured loggers stationed in the depths of Siberia. VICE founder Shane Smith and producer Jason Mojica traveled to Far East Russia to uncover what was rumored to be a series of secret North Korean labor camps dotting the Siberian landscape. Reaching these camps forced Shane and the VICE crew onto the oft-romanticized Trans-Siberian Railway. Shane manages to interview the North Korean workers who have been shipped to Russia to raze the Taiga forest. 

Producer Jason Mojica will take your questions and respond to your comments.

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons