Hello my dear friends, I wish this beautiful spring day could cheer you up a little bit
This is Un A - nothing like your usual North Korean propaganda host.
She speaks fluent English and presents herself as a modern North Korean woman living in the
capital Pyongyang.
another beautiful day in Pyongyang. So what’s the interesting topic for girls?
I think it’s clothes.
With her videos, she claims she wants to show what life is really like in the DPRK
And she disputes reporting from the West about her country, considered one of the most secretive
and repressive in the world. Hello, today is April 24th and I’m here
for a reason. Recently, Western media reported about the DPRK’s economy, so I’m here
to check it out. So far, the videos are racking up just several
thousand views on YouTube, but some appear to have circulated more widely on Weibo, China's
China's popular social network.
The accounts that are uploading her content are known for sharing other propaganda material
glorifying the DPRK.
Experts have linked these accounts to Sogwang, a North Korean state-run media outlet, and
believe they are monitored by the regime.
Just the fact that she can go around Pyongyang with a video camera and interview people means
that there is some sort of official level of acceptance and clearance for this, because
it's not the kind of place where you could just go and do that.
Un A is breaking new ground in a country where most people do not have access to the Internet.
Rulers, including the current leader Kim Jong Un, have long relied on a handful of state-run
TV and radio stations to spread their propaganda, both at home and abroad.
If we look at the way that North Korea tries to speak to the Western world, tries to promote
its image, its media is really stuck in the 1980s and the 1990s. Usually the videos are
the same kind of propaganda content that goes out domestically. A lot of recordings from
state television and some other recordings glorifying the North Korean system or glorifying
the Kim family. So for it to jump from that to this type of YouTube social media stuff
was really noticeable. Un A has released over a dozen videos so far,
experimenting with different graphics and titles.
No missile tests, no over-the-top military parades. Instead, she portrays aspects of
personal life, fashion or culture.
She covers a lot of material not as heavily propaganda focused. But, of course, because
it is North Korea, because everything is monitored, there is still propaganda. We can't forget
that.
The videos are also notable for what they leave out.
In this recording an entire building in the background is blurred out.
In a different video supermarket prices are hidden.
And here the blurring appears to be used to hide people’s shoes, possibly to obscure
foreign brands, which are officially not allowed in North Korea
The North Korean government is very sensitive about the type of information, because if
we can see commodity prices, we can know about the impacts of sanctions. And then they're
also blurring out things like construction projects, which North Koreans are also really
sensitive about. They don't want us to really be able to track that type of thing because,
again, it's an economic indicator.
Good day to you my friends, DPRK stays as clean and uninfected as ever.
Most recently, Un A switched her focus to promote North Korea’s self-proclaimed success
in containing the coronavirus outbreak. North Korea has insisted it’s one of the
few countries in the world with zero COVID-19 cases, which many experts doubt, partly due
to the country's trade ties with China.
In another video, Un A pays a visit to a local supermarket to dispute claims that panic buying
was happening in Pyongyang, and that prices were rising due to the pandemic.
Are products getting expensive recently? I didn’t notice
They probably didn't just make an entire supermarket just to do this video. But what we're seeing
is what life is like in North Korea, for the rich people, for the lucky people, for the
people that live in Pyongyang, for the people that have food.
Un A’s videos are providing a very limited picture of the country.
Outside the capital, which is generally reserved to the elites, life is very different.
Many North Koreans live in extreme poverty. In 2019 the UN warned that 40 percent of the
population was in need of food aid, as the country scrambled to deal with its worst harvest
in a decade.
Over the years, tens of thousands of people have fled the authoritarian state because
of famine and human rights abuses - most of them to Russia, China and South Korea, and
some to Europe.
Last year one journalist I know went to North Korea and went to my hometown and took some
pictures for me as a gift. When I saw the pictures I cried... because my hometown has
not changed. It’s still the same. But outside the country people always see the Pyongyang
area and think North Korea is a really beautiful country. That people wear the same clothes
as they do. That people have a happy life. But that’s fake.
In the past North Korea appeared somewhat less concerned with combating its negative
reputation elsewhere in the world.
But experts say that’s changing - driven by the weight of economic sanctions imposed
by world powers, to punish the regime’s nuclear activities and human rights violations
They're feeling the burden of sanctions. They're feeling the burden of international pressure
at the United Nations. They are feeling it. And especially with the elite having access
to the Internet, they're able to see how their image is abroad. I'm sure it's something that
they're very unhappy with And so perhaps this is their way of trying to seem better.
Un A’s videos could be a first attempt at rebranding, but it’s unclear how much North
Korea will invest in such media initiatives in the future.
They could just be dipping their toes in the water. They could just be trying to figure
out, is there an audience for this stuff? What's the reaction like? I think if North
Korea wants to change its image overseas, though, it needs to realize that people overseas
don't buy the propaganda and they don't want to see it.