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North Korea.

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You probably know it for being a horrific,
repressive military dictatorship.

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But what if I told you that life there is
super cool and normal?

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Would you believe me?

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The North Korean government’s propaganda
arm thinks you might, which is why lately,

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they’ve gotten into the YouTube game.

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These are their top influencers.

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But who, exactly, are they?

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And why is a country that banned YouTube in
2016 backing YouTubers?

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And why aren’t they backing me, when I make
videos about the glorious DPRK all the time?

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Like all things North Korea, it’s hard to
know for certain, but we have a pretty good

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idea.

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Those two creators were Song A—an eleven
year old who shows you all her favorite spots

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in Pyongyang, such as the children’s hospital:
[SONG A]: “A child who comes here even forgets

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why they have come because of the cartoon
pictures on the wall.”

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And YuMi, whose life in Pyongyang is also
fun and relatable:

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[YUMI]: “It is not high speed, and yet,
I am out of breath.”

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She’s even mad that she doesn’t have more
subscribers:

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[YUMI]: “At the moment, my ratings are not
that satisfying.”

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Been there!

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YuMi has 16.3 thousand subscribers and over
750 thousand views after less than a year

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on the platform.

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Song A, in a little over a year, has amassed
almost 26 thousand subscribers and two million

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views.

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And sure, I’m a lot of them, but it’s
still solid.

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Each of their videos is basically a game of
“North Koreans: They’re Just Like Us.”

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They look at flowers through a magnifying
glass, they play rock paper scissors in the

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pool, they get nervous on amusement park rides:
[YUMI]: “To be frank with you, I am a coward.”

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They even show the darker side of living under
a brutal regime whose population has way too

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little food and way too much slavery.

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[SONG A]: “I am very hungry.”

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Wow, you wouldn’t expect a propaganda channel
to reference the worsening food shortage in

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North Korea.

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Wait, unless…

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[SONG A]: “That is because we were in water.”

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Oh, just from swimming.

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Can’t believe I fell for that.

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[SONG A]: “There is also a bad side about
it, too—

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Wait, maybe we’ve got something here!

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[Song A]: “This year, I am going to middle
school.”

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That’s… actually pretty bad.

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But still, daily life in North Korea isn’t
what these influencers are showing us, even

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for the most well-off elites.

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For example, given how shoddy the country’s
power supply is, that amusement park YuMi

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cowarded at is probably closed most of the
time.

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But the big tell that these channels are state-sponsored
propaganda isn’t the misleading excursions

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or the semi-frequent mentions of the Supreme
Leader.

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It’s that they exist at all.

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See, in North Korea, the internet is a privilege
of the few and the literally well-connected.

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Most people have none at all, while some are
allowed onto a government-run intranet called

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Kwangmyong which as of 2014 hosted a couple
thousand highly censored websites copied over

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from the real internet.

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North Koreans can only access it with permission
on government-made computers in highly supervised

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computer labs, university libraries, and cyber
cafes, and since you can’t reach it outside

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of the Hermit Kingdom, it’s not the best
place to launch a global influencing career.

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Some people in North Korea have access to
the real internet: government officials, their

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relatives, and a small handful of people who
need it to do their jobs like hackers, some

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researchers, and propagandists—altogether,
less than one percent of the population.

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The country has a whopping two lines that
physically connect it to the internet, one

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run to China and the other to Russia, plus
seemingly a couple satellite connections.

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And all that infrastructure is weak, slow,
and old enough that one American was able

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to single-handedly break it all down for a
bit last year with a series of DDoS attacks,

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and not, as I’d assumed, a viral pic of
Kim J.

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YuMi and Song A having smartphones to film
on, foreign media to fangirl about—

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[SONG A]: “My favorite book is Harry Potter.”

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[YUMI]: “Qatar World Cup is just around
the corner.

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Millions of football fans including me make
personal opinions on the results as always.”

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—and access to YouTube to post it all meaning
they have to have a lot of permission from

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and connection to the regime.

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Which means that, yes, these people are worse
than propagandists: they’re nepo babies.

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YuMi has been linked to Sogwang, the North
Korean media company responsible for a propaganda

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YouTube channel that got banned in 2020, the
host of which was suspected to be related

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to Sogwang CEO Jon Kyong Hui and North Korea’s
ambassador to China, Ri Ryong Nam.

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And Song A’s dad worked at the North Korean
embassy in London, her grandfather is Vice

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Minister of Foreign Affairs Pak Myong Guk,
and her great-grandfather is Ri Ul Sol, a

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military commander so beloved by the Kim family
that he got a full state funeral.

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And I thought I was well connected because
my dad is the guy from Wendover!

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So why bother?

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For ages, outward-facing North Korean propaganda
looked like this.

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Why the pivot to this?

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[SONG A]: “It may sound bonkers to you,
but in our country, Mother’s Day is on the

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16th of November.”

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Like just about every North Korean thing we
cover on HAI, it comes down to foreign money.

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Most of the world has sanctioned North Korea
to bits, so their currency is nothing, so

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they need foreign cash to bankroll their toy
habit.

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Song A and YuMi’s channels—as well as
similar ones on Chinese social media sites

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Weibo and Bilibili—aren’t just raking
in adsense dollars from YouTube, they’re

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trying to make potential tourists question
the negative impression of the country they

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might have from, well, the facts.

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In 2018, 125 thousand foreign tourists visited
North Korea—roughly the same amount that

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went to San Diego Comic-Con—but the border’s
been closed since January 2020.

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And with their economy in even more shambles
than usual thanks to COVID, the government

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is trying new strategies to make North Korea
seem like a safe, fun, tourist-friendly place

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to go fishing or visit a water park gym when
they open up again.

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My two cents?

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Definitely visit, assuming you have the same
travel preferences as Song A:

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[SONG A]: “Would you go for very scary or
just scary?

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I choose very scary.”

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If you also choose very scary, make sure to
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People’s Republic of Korea.

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Just kidding.

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They ignored my calls.

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