When you sign up for an annual subscription at curiositystream.com/HAI,

curiositystream.com/HAI で年間購読をお申し込みの場合

you'll also get access to Nebula--the streaming service HAI is a part of.

HAI が提供するストリーミングサービス Nebula にもアクセスすることができます。

North Korea is a lot like North Dakota: they're both small, they're both isolated,

北朝鮮はノース・ダコタ州によく似ています：どちらも小さく、どちらも孤立しています。

they both have a penchant for being run by dead people--and they both have some Americans

二つには亡くなった人が経営してると言う特徴があり、どちらもアメリカ人がいます

living there, although far from enough to justify two seats in the Senate.

そこに住んでいて、しかし議会で2席確保するのは程遠いです。

If you're like me, you might find it strange that despite North Korea having no American embassy,

私と同じように、北朝鮮にアメリカ大使館がないにもかかわらず不思議に思うかもしれません、

and technically still being at war with the US, the Hermit Kingdom is home to

厳密にはまだアメリカと戦争状態にありますが隠者の王国（北朝鮮）には、

a handful of resourceful, scrappy, independent, technically sort-of-treasonous Americans.

一握りの工夫に富み、断片的で、独立した、技術的にも多少の反逆者のアメリカ人がいます。

But, then again, you're probably not like me: I run a semi-successful YouTube channel

でもあなたと私は違います：半分成功しているYouTubeチャンネルを運営しています

about silly little facts, and you probably have a real job.

くだらない小さな事実について、またあなたの本当の仕事について。

How many Americans live there, you ask?

そこには何人のアメリカ人が住んでいるのでしょうか？

That's a great question, to which I'll give the same answer I gave when asked

それは素晴らしい質問ですが、私は次の質問にも同じ答えをします

how many tic tacs I could fit in my mouth at once: I'm not totally sure, but probably around 200.

一度に何回のチックタックを口に入れることができるか：おそらく２００前後だと思います。

Americans in North Korea come in three main flavors: former US citizens who have renounced

北朝鮮にいるアメリカ人には、大きく分けて3つの種類があります：元米国市民の方々

their citizenship and defected, still-citizen humanitarians and educators, and Rocky Road.

国籍を取得し亡命し、今もなお市民の人道主義者であり教育者で、とても苦難な道です。

The first group, American defectors and their children, is also the smallest; in fact,

最初のグループであるアメリカ人亡命者とその子供たちは、実際には最も小さく

we only know for certain about two living ones: these guys, the Dresnok brothers, pictured here tying for last in a Kim Jong-Un lookalike competition.

私たちが確実に知っているのは生き残っているのはこれらの人たちだけで、写真は金正恩氏のそっくりさん大会で最下位になったドレスノーク兄弟です。

Why are they there?

なぜそこにいるのか？

Well, you see, in a conflict you likely learned but then forgot about in school, and then

えっと、学校で習ったけど忘れてしまったような争いの中で

learned about again, and forgot about again in one of the five videos I've made on North Korea,

北朝鮮について作った5本のビデオのうちの1本で、再び学び、また忘れてし。

back in the 1950s the US and the USSR were in something called the Cool Conflict

and they took a look at East Asia and went: hey… uh… nice Korea you've got there.

Sure would be a shame if we… did a war to it.

And so, they did do a war to it, and split the place into North Korea and Gangnam Style Korea.

Once the war ended--which technically was never, but actually was in 1953--most of the

Americans who had been doing the war went home, but a few of them thought to themselves:

“Hey, you know what I've never tried before?

Living in the world's most brutal fascist dictatorship!

Why not give that a go?”

And so, they did, and from 1953 to the 1980s, around 30 American prisoners of war and active

military personnel decided not to leave or slipped across the DMZ and into North Korea.

Some of them claim they did it to avoid court martial, or to avoid doing more war in Vietnam,

but everyone knows the real reason is because they had a crush on Kim Jong-Il.

Just look at those dimples.

Anyways, while most defectors have died, returned to the US, or relocated to China, an undisclosed

but likely very small number of descendents remain in North Korea and they don't particularly seem like they're coming back.

And who can blame them?

Getting to play roles in propaganda films as evil Americans and wearing uniforms that

look taken from a high school production of Sound of Music is a level of fame that would be hard to give up.

I mean, just look at how happy they are.

That's the face of a man who feels great about his life decisions.

The larger, less permanent, and far less cosplay-y portion of North Korea's American population

is made up of humanitarians and university professors.

Back in the 1990s, Christian groups took a break from protesting Kevin Smith movies and

yelling at Monica Lewinsky, and noticed that North Korea was suffering from brutal food

shortages and extensive flooding, so they started sending people and supplies into the

proudly atheist state, and they haven't stopped since.

Now, this might seem like an odd arrangement considering North Korea's stance on religion,

but Christians are really good at making themselves feel at home in places they aren't initially

welcome--just ask the Aztecs, or the Incas, or the native Americans, or the Spanish, or the Lebanese,

or well, almost every country and ethnic group in the world, actually.

It was also a devout Christian who founded The Pyongyang University of Science and Technology,

which sounds like a poorly-disguised front for money laundering, but is actually a private university that employs up to 70 Americans a semester.

At The Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, or TPUST--they don't call it that,

but I think they should--western professors, mostly from the States, teach 500 of the nation's

young elite in business and entrepreneurial classes, all in spoken English.

While it's unclear how many Americans currently work there given the US' ban on travel to

the country, it is still very much open and active.

Both the humanitarians and TPUST professors usually spend between three to six months

in North Korea, before heading back home to America and its many uniquely American comforts:

French fries, English muffins, Belgian waffles, Chinese takeout, etc.

But while they're still in the land of the uncreative haircut, Americans have to find

things to do, and their options largely depend on where they're located.

One common spot for Americans is the Rason Economic Zone, which is the chunk of the country

carved out for what industry and private investment exist in a country whose main export is nuclear threats.

To North Korean eyes, the Rason Economic Zone would seem to be an international hub,

but it's really more of an assortment of worn out Russian and Chinese businessmen hanging out at a Chinese-funded casino.

For the TPUST professors, who are based in Pyongyang, the whole capital city is at their fingertips

well, there are interpreters and guides who watch over foreigners,

but it's more fun if you think of them as super-loyal, government-mandated travel buddies.

What was once viewed as the world's most boring city is now home to a host of restaurants,

shopping centers, skating rinks, social clubs, heck, even sketchy Wi-Fi for foreigners to enjoy…

making Pyongyang, well, still probably one of the most boring cities in the world.

If you're an American getting bored in Pyongyang, I've got a great idea for how you can stay entertained.

You see, a while back, I and a bunch of educational-ish creators friends decided to make our own streaming

site where we don't have to worry about demonitization or the YouTube algorithm

all we have to focus on is making great content.

It's called Nebula, and on it, you get early access to ad-free versions of all my YouTube videos,

and exclusive access to Nebula Originals, like the forty-minute HAI special, feature

length Wendover documentaries, my Nebula-exclusive podcast Showmakers, and a ton of other projects from other creators.

The best way to get Nebula is through a bundle deal with CuriosityStream, a documentary streaming

service with incredible exclusive content from people like Jane Goodall, David Attenborough, and Chris Hadfield.

With their current sale price, you can get both Nebula and CuriosityStream for only $14.79 a year,

when you go to curiositystream.com/HAI, and you'll be supporting this channel while

you're at it.