�NORTH KOREA: INSIDE THE SHADOWS�� DIANE SAWYER TAKES AN UNPRECEDENTED JOURNEY INSIDE NORTH KOREA ON A SPECIAL EDITION OF �PRIMETIME,� FRIDAY, DECEMBER 8 AT 9:00 P.M., ET

North Korea has been an enigma to most people � until now. Diane Sawyer takes an unprecedented look at life inside the secretive country. Granted a 12-day visa to Pyongyang, North Korea, Sawyer explores the country whose mysterious leader has spread fear with a recent underground nuclear explosion. Sawyer pulls back the curtain to reveal what daily life is like for the notoriously isolated country. North Koreans have no contact with the outside world. Are they truly uniform in their thoughts, and how they live their lives? Are they happy? What do they think of America and Kim Jong IL, the man they must call �dear leader�? The special edition of �Primetime� airs FRIDAY, DECEMBER 8 (9:00-10:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network.

The program provides a rare inside look at a culture where everyone seems to think and act the same way. �Primetime� films inside a nursery school, visiting a class of three-year-olds. Like three-year-olds anywhere, they are happy, singing -- but it�s what they�re singing with eerie precision that makes their performance so strikingly different. Sawyer also speaks with random citizens on the street and asks them what they think of America. Their responses are always polite but uniform in the conclusion that America is the root of their problems.

While North Koreans have no internet access and only three television channels -- all government controlled � they express a passionate enthusiasm for their country. One boy tells Sawyer, �My country is the strongest country in the world and it has the strongest soldiers. My country is the best country to live.� The program then reports on Kim Jong IL, the man behind the isolation and conformity that separates North Korea from the rest of the world. Idolized within the country, the �dear leader� is widely feared outside the country.

In addition, Sawyer is allowed inside the home of a privileged athlete to see what her life is like, and visits farmers in a rice field and workers at a textile factory to get a sense of their lives in their own words.

Viewers are also able see that, for all that is so different, there is common ground to be found in the day-to-day life of people everywhere: Sawyer visits a beauty parlor and a gym to speak with North Koreans about young love, hair color and movies. What they say � and don�t know � is revealing.

DIANE SAWYER, CHRIS CUOMO, CYNTHIA McFADDEN and JOHN QUI�ONES are the anchors of �Primetime.� DAVID SLOAN is the executive producer.