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.
