Seoul, South Korea
DailyExpertNews
—
The young woman flips through a fridge of popsicles and pulls out a few to show the camera.
“This is milk flavor – the picture is so cute,” she says in English, pointing at the cartoon packaging with a smile. “And this is peach flavor.”
After eventually selecting an ice cream cone, she bites into it and declares, “The cookie is very nice.”
The four-minute video has already been viewed more than 41,000 times on YouTube, but this is no ordinary vlog. The woman, who calls herself YuMi, lives in North Korea, perhaps the most isolated and secretive country in the world.
Her YouTube channel, created last June, is one of several social media accounts that have popped up on the internet over the past two years in which North Korean residents claim to share their daily lives.
But experts say all is not as it seems in these videos, and that the images contain telltale signs that the lives shown are far from the norm for the impoverished millions under leader Kim Jong-un’s dictatorship.
Instead, they suggest that YuMi and others are like likely related to high-ranking officials and may be part of a propaganda campaign aimed at rebranding the country’s international image as a more recognizable – even tourist-friendly – place than the continued talk of nuclear weapons suggests.
YuMi’s videos “look like a well-prepared play” written by the North Korean government, said Park Seong-cheol, a researcher at the Database Center for North Korean Human Rights.
For decades, North Korea has been relatively cut off from the rest of the world, with severe restrictions on freedom of expression, free movement and access to information.
Its dismal human rights record has been criticized by the United Nations. Internet use is heavily restricted; even the privileged few who are allowed to own smartphones can only access a government-run, heavily censored intranet. Foreign materials such as books and movies are banned, often with heavy penalties for those caught with black market contraband.
That’s why YuMi – who has access not only to a movie device but also to YouTube – is no ordinary North Korean, experts say.
“Connecting to the outside world is impossible for a resident,” said Ha Seung-hee, a research professor of North Korea studies at Dongguk University.
YuMi isn’t the only North Korean YouTuber to draw attention: an 11-year-old who calls herself Song A made her YouTube debut in April 2022 and already has more than 20,000 subscribers.
“My favorite book is ‘Harry Potter,’ written by JK Rowling,” Song A claims in a video, holding up the first book in the series — especially striking given North Korea’s typically strict rules that prohibit foreign culture, especially from western countries.
The video features Song A speaking with a British accent sitting in what appears to be an idyllic nursery, complete with a globe, bookshelf, stuffed animal, framed photograph and pink curtains.
The rosy depictions of everyday life in Pyongyang can also provide a clue to the social status and identity of their creators.
YuMi’s videos show her visiting an amusement park and an interactive cinema show, fishing in a river, working out in a well-equipped indoor gym and visiting a limestone cave where young students wave the North Korean flag in the background.
Song A visits a packed water park, visits a science and technology exhibition center and films her first day of school.
Park, the expert, says these depictions are not 100% false, but they are extremely misleading and do not represent normal life.
There are reports that North Korea’s wealthy elite, such as senior government officials and their families, have access to luxuries such as air conditioning, scooters and coffee. And the facilities shown in the YouTube videos exist, but they aren’t accessible to most people and are only granted to “special people in a special class,” Park said.
These facilities are also likely not open or operating regularly, as the videos suggest, he said. “For example, the power supply in North Korea isn’t smooth enough to run an amusement park, so I’ve heard they would only use it on weekends or on a special day, like when they’re shooting a video,” added Park up to it.
North Korea is notorious for frequent blackouts and power shortages; only about 26% of the population has access to electricity, according to 2019 estimates from the CIA World Factbook. These blackouts were captured in 2011 and 2014 on nighttime satellite images that showed North Korea plunged into darkness and almost lost in the dark sea around it – in stark contrast to the dazzling lights of neighboring China and South Korea.
The YouTubers’ English language skills and access to rare luxuries suggest they are both highly educated and likely related to senior officials, Park said.
Defectors have previously told DailyExpertNews that some North Koreans teach British English in their English classes. The British Council, a UK-based organization, also ran an English teacher training program in North Korea, sending teachers there for over a dozen years before shutting down in 2017.
North Korean propaganda is not new; previous campaigns featured Soviet-style posters, videos of troops marching and missile tests, and images of Kim Jong Un on a white horse.
But experts say the YouTube videos and similar North Korean social media accounts on Chinese platforms like Weibo and Bilibili illustrate a new strategy: relatability.
“North Korea is trying to emphasize that Pyongyang is an ‘ordinary city,'” Park said, adding that the leadership is “deeply interested in how the outside world sees them.”
Ha, the research professor, said North Korea could try to portray itself as a “safe country” to encourage more tourism for its battered economy – especially after the toll of the Covid-19 pandemic.
While it has not yet reopened its borders to tourists, “at some point the pandemic will end and North Korea is focusing on tourism for economic purposes,” Ha said.
Before the pandemic, there were limited tour options where visitors were led around the country by Ministry of Tourism guides. The tours were carefully choreographed, designed to show the country in its best light. Yet many countries, including the United States, are warning their citizens against visiting.
After the pandemic started, “there was talk (in North Korea) about doing away with previous forms of propaganda and implementing new ones,” Ha said. “After Kim Jong-un ordered (the authorities) to be more creative in their propaganda, vlog videos started appearing on YouTube.”
A 2019 article in North Korea’s state-run newspaper Rodong Sinmun, quoting Kim, stated that the country’s propaganda and news outlets should “boldly do away with the old framework of writing and editing with established conventions and conventional methods.”
The use of English by the YouTubers may reflect this effort to reach global viewers. Both YuMi and Song A also include handy English names for their channels: YuMi is also called “Olivia Natasha” and Song A is called “Sally Parks”.
North Korea has posted other types of propaganda on YouTube over the past decade, though the official videos are often taken down by moderators.
In 2017, YouTube took down the state-run North Korean news channel Uriminzokkiri and the Tonpomail channel, controlled by ethnic Koreans in Japan loyal to Pyongyang, saying they violated the platform’s terms of service and community guidelines.
Another YouTube channel called Echo of Truth, reportedly run by a North Korean resident named Un A who filmed himself doing daily activities in Pyongyang, was taken down in late 2020.
But the closures sparked outrage from some researchers who said the videos provided valuable insight into North Korea and its leadership, even if it was propaganda.
When DailyExpertNews asked YouTube for comment on these removed channels, and those of Song A and YuMi, a spokesperson said the platform “complies with all applicable sanctions and trade compliance laws — including with respect to content created and uploaded by restricted entities.”
“If we discover that an account violates our Terms of Service or Community Guidelines, we will disable it,” the statement said.
Experts said YuMi and Song A’s videos could be Pyongyang’s attempt to reach an audience without attracting the attention of moderators.
And as scripted as they were, they too offered a valuable insight into the country, said experts.
“People already know that (the videos) are made for propaganda purposes… the public already knows,” Ha said. But, she added, “I think there needs to be proper education and discussion about how we should perceive (such) content rather than just closing the doors.”
