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GERMAN OF THE WEEK

DOCUMENTARY

‘Crybaby’ Playboy model travels like refugee

Former playboy model Mirja du Mont seriously risked breaking a nail when she agreed to travel like an asylum seeker for a controversial reality-documentary – a journey we say makes her German of the Week.

'Crybaby' Playboy model travels like refugee
Photo: ZDF

German It girl and model Mirja du Mont is famous for not much else but being the third wife of actor Sky du Mont (Eyes Wide Shut). Yet regular appearances on reality TV shows have allowed her to hold onto her B-list celebrity status.

But for a documentary due to be aired Thursday night on ZDF’s neo TV channel, she has finally done something worth talking about – packed up her high-heels and make-up and set off to re-trace the long and dangerous journey typically made by asylum seekers heading for Europe from Africa.

In ZDF’s Auf der Flucht – das Experiment, Mirja du Mont must complete a perilous journey from Germany to Africa via Italy – the reverse of an asylum seeker’s route to the country.

For the show – a mix of documentary and I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here… – participants have their phones confiscated and are expected to travel with no money and few rights.

ZDF cast Mirja du Mont for full dramatic effect. Der Spiegel magazine wrote on Thursday that because she “needs publicity” so badly, she would be sure to play the role of “crybaby” to the full.

Starting at a reception centre in Oberursel near Frankfurt, she travels to refugee accommodation in Rome. From there she is given passage on a boat to Tunisia and is then transferred to the island of Lampedusa. She finally reaches a 13,000-strong refugee camp in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

When faced with the asylum seeker slum in Rome, du Mont forces out the tears, said the magazine, blubbering and patting her eyes.

Possibly for the camera’s benefit, du Mont seems by the end of the journey to abandon her original stark views on asylum seekers – strict rules, she said before the journey, were highly necessary “otherwise we’d have them all here”.

The Local/jlb

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DENMARK

Danish chef spent ten years infiltrating North Korea

A Danish chef on a sickness pension spent ten years infiltrating and secretly filming North Korea's foreign influence operation for a documentary, even winning a contract to manufacture military equipment in a third country.

Danish chef spent ten years infiltrating North Korea
Former chef Ulrich Larsen shakes hands with Alejandro Cao de Benós, the 'gatekeeper to North Korea'. Photo: Piraya Films
“The Mole – Undercover in North Korea”, which broadcasts on Swedish, Danish, Norwegian and British TV this Sunday, uses footage shot with hidden cameras Ulrich Larsen brought to meetings in Europe and North Korea, to expose how North Koreans are desperately trying to obtain US dollars and oil for the regime through encouraging foreign investors to break international UN sanctions. 
 
The film is directed by the Danish film maker Mads Brügger, who hired Jim Latrache-Qvortrup to represent an arms dealer called “Mr James”, who accompanied Larsen to meetings and then signed a contract on a visit to Pyongyang with a representative of a North Korean arms factory, with government officials present. 
 
 
Larsen, who had had to give up work due to chronic inflammation of his pancreas, began working on the project out of boredom.  He told Danish broadcaster DR  that he approached Brügger after curiosity about the regime led him to join the Korean Friendship Association (KFA). 
 
There he came into contact with Alejandro Cao de Benós, a Spanish nobleman who presents himself as “the Gatekeeper of North Korea”.
 
“I started with the project to make time go by when I was on sickness benefits,” he told DR. “But when I got started, I became curious. 'Is this possible?” “Is it real?” And I think sometimes it's healthy to sniff at something that seems exciting.” 
 
In 2013, Cao De Benós contacted Larsen, telling him he had three interesting investment projects in North Korea if Larsen could find people with more than 50,000 euros to invest. 
 
It was then that Brügger hired Latrache-Qvortrup, a former foreign legionnaire who had spent eight years in prison for dealing drugs to the rich and famous. 
 
Latrache-Qvortrup then accompanied Larsen on trips to Uganda, Spain, Norway and North Korea to help expose the hermit state's influence operation. 
 
Larsen said he had kept his double life secret from his family. 
 
“My wife was never told at all that what I was doing could be dangerous. Not at all,” he said. “I can see that it's selfish, but if I had told her, I would probably have been told not to come home. At the same time, it was also a way to protect her. Because if she knew I was going out to meet with an arms dealer, she would have been sitting at home a total wreck.” 
 
One of the most tense moments came when Cao De Benós brought a device that detects hidden cameras to a meeting. 
 
Hugh Griffiths, co-ordinator of the UN Panel of Experts on North Korea between 2014 and 2019, told the BBC that he had found the film “highly credible”.
 
“This film is the most severe embarrassment to Chairman Kim Jong-un that we have ever seen,” said Griffiths. “Just because it appears amateurish does not mean the intention to sell and gain foreign currency revenue is not there. Elements of the film really do correspond with what we already know.”
 
 
Larsen told DR that now the film was being broadcast, he was worried that he might face repercussions. 
 
“There is no doubt that some people are going to be pretty angry. I have pissed all over some of these people and lied incredibly. And it's easy to travel around the world, so if they now decide that I should learn a lesson. Or if the North Koreans could think of sending someone after me…”
 
But he said he hoped that would not happen.
 
“I then choose to believe that they are not so… what can I say… low-down practical. But it may be that they want to set an example and scare me, or do something worse. I do not know what will happen.”
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