Part of my series of videos on North Korea from my April 2012 visit, for now unedited and in the order I took the videos.

Today’s videos are of our visit to a North Korean steel factory. They told us we were among the first foreigners to visit the place in a long time, maybe ever.

We loved visiting this place. That we got to tour right into the heart of such an industrial place was incredible. They didn’t have us wear hard hats or take any sort of safety training. I joked that if the U.S. government had a problem with us visiting North Korea, at first the State Department would have the problem but after this video it would be OSHA.

The driveway to the North Korean steel factory

We couldn’t read the signs or understand the odd sculpture, but this road lead to the steel factory. I assume it’s propaganda. If anyone wants to translate, I’ll post what you tell me it says.

Entering a North Korean steel factory

Here we enter the steel factory. We felt like we were entering Mordor, for all you Lord of the Rings fans.

I can’t tell you how amazing this experience was. I mean, it’s one thing to enter an industrial place in the U.S. It’s another to visit North Korea. It’s another to visit Mordor. To do all three at once is crazy. In an incredible way.

They also showed us samples of what the factory makes, along with some schematic diagrams of how it worked.

Inside the steel factory

Here’s more detail of inside the steel factory. Words can’t describe the awe and craziness of a bunch of American tourists visiting a place like this.

Highly recommended.

Here’s a picture of Mordor from Peter Jackman’s movies for comparison.

Jordan and the factory’s sparking furnace (funny)

I was about to record Jordan talking about visiting this factory in front of the smoking, sparking furnace, or whatever that thing was when it started sparking a lot.

Still funny a year later.

Yeah we freaked out. Who wouldn’t?

• ← George Clooney on Living Well
• Bringing peace sooner: videos of North Korea: two more fly-throughs of models →