Meet North Korea's YouTubers, who go fishing, eat ice cream, and gush about 'Harry Potter' to fuel Kim Jong Un's propaganda machine

Insider via Yahoo ^ | February 11, 2023 | Matthew Loh

[grundle]

Several YouTubers have emerged in the last year claiming to show life inside North Korea.

They post talk about the World Cup, visit 4D cinemas, and eat ice cream.

But a closer look reveals they're likely all connected to a state-linked media company in Pyongyang.

Think of North Korean propaganda, and Ri Chun Hee, the granny state news anchor who blares praises of the regime on state TV, might come to mind. But the country appears to have been taking a new approach to communicating with the outside world, deploying a fresh generation of North Korean vloggers.

Among them is Song A, or Sally Parks, an 11-year-old who frolics in amusement parks and 4D cinemas, and claims in fluent English to love reading "Harry Potter." There's also Yu Mi, a young woman who chats with old ladies about ice creams and discusses World Cup predictions with soccer enthusiasts.

These YouTubers are likely part of a wider social media operation sanctioned by the North Korean government to spread propaganda, according to international observers and Seoul-based North Korea analysis firm NK News. After all, North Koreans are prohibited from accessing the internet or posting online videos — and Yu Mi and Song A are very publicly waltzing about in Pyongyang with their cameras.

Clues from known North Korean social media propaganda accounts indicate that both channels — as well as other North Korean YouTubers taken down over the last few years — are part of a larger network run by the same organization. Below, we've taken a look at some of the North Korean YouTubers pushing propaganda online.

[Gay State Conservative]

Fishing? Yah...fishing for all sorts of scams,big and small.

[Jet Jaguar]

Bump

[mbrfl]

My understanding is that those living in Pyongyang, and in particular, those who work in government, are allowed to have a somewhat better standard of living than those living outside the capital, and not part of government. Those poor people are treated as virtual slaves by the regime.

[ealgeone]

North Korea has everything the Left would love us to have.

[Celerity]

So north Korea learned an agit-prop FROM US

[mbrfl]

So true.

[grundle]

My understanding is that those living in Pyongyang, and in particular, those who work in government, are allowed to have a somewhat better standard of living than those living outside the capital, and not part of government.

Yes. It's the only part of the country with reliable electricity:

[mbrfl]

That satellite image says it all!