Foreign Correspondent S2019E07 - Out of Breath

If ever there was a project to build bridges between North Korea and the rest of us, this is it.

Every six months, without fanfare, medics and volunteers from the US, South Korea and other countries head to the North Korean countryside where they link up with local doctors and nurses to treat patients suffering from the deadly multi-drug resistant TB (MDRTB).

As an outsider you're sort of pulling two worlds together. When I stand in front of North Koreans, most of whom have never seen a non-Asian in their entire lives, I represent a sort of visual spectacle. I represent Americans who they've been taught all of their lives to believe are their enemy – Dr Stephen Linton, founder of the US-based Eugene Bell Foundation

MDRTB strikes close to 500,000 people worldwide each year, many of them in North Korea.

It's a very painful way to die. But the cruellest thing about TB is that it's infectious. You don't just die – you actually kill the people you love – Dr K. J. Seung, Eugene Bell Foundation

Over time the volunteers become emotionally attached to the patients, unashamedly so. On one of her first trips Hyuna Linton met a 14-year-old girl with MDRTB. Six months later, Hyuna returned with medicine and hope. It was too late.

My heart broke then. She was the first patient who died that I can remember – Hyuna Linton, Eugene Bell Foundation

North Korean doctor Im Soonhee dreads facing the family of any patient who's died.

I feel sorry and guilty. I feel we didn't try hard enough or care for them enough – Dr Im, North Korea

Deep emotional bonds also form between the foreigners and their North Korean hosts.

I remember Dr Im touching my cheek and saying, ‘Don't get sick.' I realised how much she worries about us. That kind of warmth is special – Hyuna Linton, volunteer, Eugene Bell Foundation

Their cultural differences put aside, the teams share not only grief but also moments of joy. Such as when a teenage girl recovering from the disease announces her life's new goal:

I want to study medicine. I want to cure people who are sick like me – Youngshim, patient

Defying a common perception of North Koreans as automatons, this film presents them as real people who laugh and cry and love. It's also a rare insight into a part of the world that's been mostly hidden from western eyes.

Out of Breath – from filmmaker Hein S. Seok.