Reporter's Notebook: What Diane Sawyer Can't Forget About N. Korea
Oct. 21, 2006 — -- To everyone checking in this weekend, here's one last footnote about our journeys through North Korea: We continue to be struck by something that seems, well, out of this world, something we've never seen before.
We always come back to the children.
Even in their earliest years, they begin ferocious training. They are not just being taught; they are being taught to be the very best.
You can see the result of that discipline in the classroom and when they're walking through the streets.
Sometimes the children in North Korea look like typical youngsters. Girls with ponytails and hula hoops in hand giggle as they huddle together.
But their young lives are not so carefree. Much of their time is spent at practice -- practice to be the best at singing, dancing or instrument playing.
It is practice with an almost religious fervor. We were told at all times they are thinking that they must do it for their dear leader Kim Jong Il, their father who has given them uniforms and the tools of learning.
However impoverished the country, however few its materials, North Korea's children remain devoted to refining their skills by any means they can.
We wondered how is it possible that these children keep such an unwavering focus, when a half a world away in America children fill their afternoons with video games and online chatting.
We also wondered if it's a government design, a kind of discipline which will occupy and distract curious minds.
The seeming perfection of North Korea's children is startling to Westerners. It also raises questions.
What exactly is its purpose? What is its price?
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