A young woman is rummaging through her ice cream fridge, pulling out a few packages to show the camera. “Milk flavored. The picture is so sweet”He says in English with a British accent, gleefully pointing to the cartoon packaging. “This one is peach flavored too”. Choosing a horn, he bites it and says: “Biscuits are delicious”. The four-minute video has over 41,000 views on YouTube, but it’s no ordinary vlog. Blogger YuMi’s channel, created last June, is one of the few social networks that have emerged in the past year or two where residents of North Korea talk about their so-called daily lives.

holding a gun to his head

In one of the videos, another YouTuber tells her viewers that her favorite book is Harry Potter. But experts say that not everything is as shown to us. The picture created in all these videos is far from the fact that millions of people live in extreme poverty. Under the dictatorship of Kim Jong Un. One source shares his thoughts after the screening, saying that the actors felt forced to play the role, as if they had “guns to their heads”.

Researchers who carefully studied the material, YuMi and her “colleagues” are likely linked to high-level officials and may be part of a propaganda campaign.aimed at some sort of rebranding and elevating the country’s international image to a more attractive, even touristic attraction. According to Park Song Chol, a researcher at the North Korean Database Center for Human Rights, YuMi’s videos are “like a well-rehearsed game” written by the government.

In another video, one of the YouTubers is seen swimming in a water park with a pool that creates waves. However, this facility is probably not open to the public and is used only for such shows.

For example, the power supply in North Korea is not stable enough to run the theme park, so I’ve heard that they only work on weekends or on a special day like when shooting a video.
says Puck.

Power outages are common in North Korea. In fact, according to the report, only a quarter of the country’s population has access to electricity.

The life depicted in these YouTube videos is most likely a complete fabrication. Dongguk University professor and North Korean researcher Ha Sun-hee told CNN that the videos are an example of how the North Korean government is switching to new forms of propaganda, possibly poised to put a new emphasis on tourism in a post-pandemic world.

What’s really going on in North Korea?

For decades, North Korea has been isolated from the rest of the world with severe restrictions on freedom of speech, free movement, and access to information.

• The highly unacceptable situation regarding human rights was criticized by the United Nations.
• Internet use is severely restricted: even privileged people who are allowed to use smartphones can only access the government’s heavily censored Internet network.
• Foreign materials such as books and movies are prohibited. Those caught while smuggling face heavy penalties.

Experts say that YuMi, who has access not only to the camera but also to YouTube, is not an ordinary citizen.