1:45 AM, the 38th parallel, along the border of North and South Korea. The 148-mile-long border is the most heavily militarized in the world. This joint South Korean-American platoon is on constant alert for infiltrators from the North. Behind these fences, North Korea has a million-man army, and now nuclear weapons, which they could use or possibly give away to terrorists. The soldiers can monitor every sound and movement close to the border, but what makes this place so dangerous is the uncertainty of what lies on the other side of the divide.
North Korea is one of the most secretive countries on Earth. It's regarded as an intelligence black hole. But we know some basic facts. North Korea is roughly the size of Mississippi. It has 23 million people, a showcase capital Pyongyang, and is completely controlled by Kim Jong-il. The Dear Leader is an absolute dictator, worshiped in a personality cult perhaps more extreme than any other in history.
"Kim Jong-il is the Son of God in North Korea. He is the state. The notion of questioning his ability to rule or what he does doesn't enter into things."
Everyone is trained from birth to love the Dear Leader. And no outside sources of information are allowed. Newspapers and television are controlled by the state. There is no Internet. Cell phones have been banned. And many don't even know a man has walked on the moon.
"There is no freedom. It's a country run in tyranny and dictatorship. I don't think anyone can understand North Korea until they experience it."
North Korea is known as the "hermit kingdom" because of its extreme isolation from the rest of the world. But on the other side of Asia, one man is literally planning to bring light to the darkness of North Korea. Nepalese eye surgeon Dr. Sanduk Ruit travels the world setting up eye clinics in developing countries. Dubbed "a miracle doctor" by the media, Ruit trains local doctors in inexpensive and effective treatments for cataracts. North Korea may be his biggest challenge yet. Thousands of people go blind due to a lack of even the most basic medical facilities.
"The annual number of surgeries performed is just, just very little, and the blindness magnitude is one of the highest in the world."
Ruit plans to travel from Nepal to North Korea to do more than 1,000 surgeries in less than 10 days. His mission is purely humanitarian. What the North Koreans don't know is that our camera crew is going with him.
"So what do you think of the cameras so far, Dr. Ruit?"
"I think it's big."
"You think these cameras are big?"
Our camera crew is posing as members of Dr. Ruit's medical team. We are going to document his work and show the world what life is like inside North Korea. (Send it back. Be sure you won't be in trouble.) This meeting in a Katmandu hotel room will be the last time our team can converse in private.
"So there would be a North Korean man traveling with us the entire time (yes) from here to Pyongyang."
"From here to Pyongyang and back to Katmandu."
infiltrator: someone who takes up a position surreptitiously for the purpose of espionage
cataract: opacity of the lens or capsule of the eye, causing impairment of vision or blindness