In a viral clip on DimpleVideo, former North Korean special operator Kang Yoon-chul watches an American “Top 5 Guns for Home Defense” video – and can’t believe what he’s seeing.
Kang served in Kim Jong Un’s Supreme Guard Command, defected in 2015, and now reacts to U.S. gun culture with the mix of discipline, curiosity, and blunt honesty you’d expect from a man who once guarded the regime’s inner circle.
It’s a rare window: a veteran of Pyongyang’s most elite unit weighing the merits of a Mossberg-family budget shotgun one moment and reflecting on North Korean propaganda the next. His comments are in Korean, the video he’s watching is in English, and the contrast is startling.
Sticker Shock: “Isn’t That Too Cheap?”
The first shock is literally the price tag. When the U.S. host mentions the Maverick 88 at about $269, Kang does the math out loud, converting to roughly 350,000 won and then double-checking himself.
“Really? Isn’t that too cheap?” he says, almost laughing at the idea that a defensive shotgun could cost about as much as a mid-range appliance.
He calls it “toy money” and then catches himself, realizing the “toy” he’s talking about is a real 12-gauge with six rounds on tap.
The affordability registers not merely as a bargain; to a man from a society where firearms are monopolized by the state, it feels like an alternate universe where ordinary people can buy serious tools without state gatekeepers.
What Guns Mean Inside North Korea
Kang moves quickly from stickers to stakes. He explains that in North Korea, weapons are symbols of state power, and availability to civilians is effectively none. He remembers how security organs – “the boan guys,” as he calls them – enforce a thicket of prohibitions that make daily life a constant tightrope.
People talk quietly, he says, about what would happen “if a war came” and rifles were handed out in mass mobilization.
The sentiment he heard wasn’t rebellion in a romantic sense; it was raw grievance. If you armed everyone overnight, the first targets wouldn’t be foreign invaders, he says grimly – they’d be the local enforcers.
The comment isn’t bluster. It’s a report from a man who policed the periphery of the system and heard what people whispered when they thought it was safe.
That’s why the prices, the shelves, the consumer talk about home defense – all of that lands on Kang as a civilizational contrast.
Firearms in the U.S. aren’t an emblem of the state. They are, for many, a household decision. He isn’t arguing policy; he’s mapping culture shock.
Propaganda Versus Reality
Kang also describes the media diet he grew up with. When North Korean television covered America, it showcased family tragedies and mass shootings on loop.
Sons killing fathers, wives killing neighbors, the most lurid stories replayed as proof that capitalism rots the soul and guns unlock the worst in people.
It worked, he admits. “We were scared,” he says. The narrative wasn’t nuanced. America became a place where firearms were synonymous with chaos.
And yet the video he’s watching now – well-lit, matter-of-fact, talking about over-penetration, wall safety, and household readiness – makes that old caricature wobble. He doesn’t instantly convert into a Second Amendment pundit.
But you can hear the gears turning as he holds propaganda in one hand and an American how-to in the other.
The Tech That Blows His Mind
The segment that truly stuns him comes late: a compact .45 ACP carbine kitted with folding stock, red-dot optic, and weapon light, with 25-round magazines available. He focuses on recoil mitigation and ergonomics – signs of someone trained to notice mechanisms, not just aesthetics.
“It’s a real gun,” he says with a slight shiver of respect. Not a movie prop. Not a plastic toy. A platform designed to solve problems at home-defense distances while controlling blast and bounce.
Kang lingers on the practicality. A light helps you see. A dot helps you find the target. A stock helps your shoulder. He’s not star-struck; he’s assessing performance the way you’d assess a tool for a dangerous job. And he recognizes something else: the whole package is meant to be staged and ready, the way you’d stage a fire extinguisher or a tourniquet.
Close the bolt, keep it safe, keep it by the bed – this is a vocabulary he never heard in Pyongyang.
What He’d Pick If He Lived Here
When asked what he’d choose if he lived in the U.S., Kang doesn’t hesitate: the KRISS Vector catches his eye. The recoil-taming system, the compact form, the .45 power at home distances – it all adds up to confidence.
He also mentions the M16-style rifle in the background, noting simply that a longer barrel buys distance and that bigger guns read, intuitively, as more capable when you don’t know every spec by heart.
That last point is telling. He admits he hasn’t used a wide array of Western firearms and doesn’t want to bluff.
He knows the rifle format, he knows how length and mass affect control, and he respects the Vector’s engineering because it plainly does what it says on the tin: shoot fast, stay flat, keep your sight.
What he finds most “surprising,” and he uses that word more than once, isn’t the cool factor. It’s the idea that an ordinary person might own such a capable setup for home defense without being a cop or a soldier.
Coming from a place where guns are synonymous with the state, that is the hardest concept to metabolize.
A Different Conversation About Cost And Power
Kang also circles back to cost and capability. He’s impressed by prices that would be unthinkable where he grew up, but he’s equally aware that tools this effective demand judgment and training.
He notes recoil as a practical limit and appreciates that certain designs minimize it. He hears the American narrator talk about over-penetration and echoes the caution: know what’s behind your target.
He doesn’t render a policy verdict, but he sketches the line between possession and responsibility in a way that’s unusually grounded for internet gun talk.
A defensive gun is “for your place, your family,” he says, and the setup matters: a light to identify, a dot to aim, furniture you can actually shoulder. It’s not bravado; it’s process.
Bringing Discipline and Humility
What struck me most about Kang Yoon-chul’s reaction wasn’t the “wow” moments. It was the discipline and humility he brought to the subject. He never pretends to know the entire U.S. debate.
He reports his experience: how propaganda framed America, how North Koreans talk about power, how a state monopoly on arms shapes everything else in a society.
There’s a quiet lesson in his shock at a $269 shotgun. Availability reshapes assumptions. In one country, a shotgun is a line item at a big-box store; in another, it’s a state artifact you see in parades. That doesn’t settle any argument about what laws should be.
But it does remind us that the context in which a tool exists can matter as much as the tool itself.
And his fascination with recoil systems, optics, and lights is a second lesson. The gear he admires is not cartoonish; it’s about control. Less recoil means fewer misses.
A light means fewer mistakes. A dot means you can aim under stress. For someone trained to evaluate mission tools, that kind of engineering reads as safety through competence, not just style.
Finally, I found his comments about everyday North Koreans painfully human. When rules multiply and enforcement hardens, resentment coheres. He isn’t justifying violence; he’s explaining the pressure cooker he escaped.
Hearing him say, almost off-hand, that if rifles were suddenly distributed, many would aim first at the enforcers, is a reminder of what it means when a state treats trust as expendable.
Kang Yoon-chul’s reaction video isn’t a referendum on American gun policy. It’s a mirror. In it, an ex-member of Kim’s Supreme Guard Command sees U.S. home-defense guns, prices, and setups – and maps them against a lifetime in a closed, tightly controlled society.
He’s startled by the cost, impressed by the engineering, skeptical of propaganda, and sober about responsibility.
You don’t have to share his preferences – Vector over shotgun, long gun over pistol – to hear the deeper point he’s making. Tools change behavior because tools change possibilities. In a free society, that means more agency and more duty.
What this former North Korean soldier recognizes, almost instinctively, is that the conversation that matters isn’t about macho fantasy. It’s about judgment, preparation, and the kind of trust a government places in its citizens – and that citizens place in themselves.
UP NEXT: “Heavily Armed” — See Which States Are The Most Strapped
Image Credit: Survival World
Americans have long debated the role of firearms, but one thing is sure — some states are far more armed than others. See where your state ranks in this new report on firearm ownership across the U.S.
Gary’s love for adventure and preparedness stems from his background as a former Army medic. Having served in remote locations around the world, he knows the importance of being ready for any situation, whether in the wilderness or urban environments. Gary’s practical medical expertise blends with his passion for outdoor survival, making him an expert in both emergency medical care and rugged, off-the-grid living. He writes to equip readers with the skills needed to stay safe and resilient in any scenario.