Kim Jong-un is using this bizarre method in North Korea to ensure 'survival of the Kim family'

Experts have issued a warning that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is using social media to spread propaganda and disinformation about life in the country.

Kim Jong-un is unleashing a new wave of propaganda, as reported by The Telegraph. Experts told the publication that his regime is using North Korean influencers as part of a push to create more 'innovative' propaganda.

North Korea being 'more creative in their propaganda'

Ha Seung-hee, a research professor of North Korean studies at Dongguk University said that following the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, 'there was talk (in North Korea) about shedding previous forms of propaganda and implementing new forms'. He told CNN:

After Kim Jong Un ordered (authorities) to be more creative in their propaganda, vlog videos on YouTube began appearing.

North Korean influencers make these vlog-style YouTube videos and TikToks to allegedly show the rest of the world the 'reality' of life in the hermit kingdom. This is despite the fact the internet is banned in North Korea and tourism is strictly controlled.

Dr Owen Miller, a North Korea expert from SOAS University’s Department of East Asian Languages and Culture, said:

They’re looking at what’s out there and they’re trying to match it,

They’re trying to adapt their public image and their public relations to the style of content on social media that people expect to see. It shows that the people who are in charge of this propaganda are very aware of what’s going on in the world.

Dr Miller said that viewers must be aware that these videos do not accurately represent life for the majority of North Korean citizens. Rather, these are 'special people in a special class', as described by Park Seong-Cheol, a researcher at the Database Centre for North Korean Human Rights.

Dr Sarah Son, lecturer in Korean studies at the University of Sheffield, warned that the videos could mislead people about life in a country which is renowned for abusing human rights. She said:

It is going to potentially influence a broader, less-informed audience. In a way, that is precisely what the North Korean government wants,

It is being used as a very distinct soft power play by the North Korean government, for its own ends, and its own ends are never anything more really than the survival of the Kim family.

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Why is North Korea promoting itself to the outside world?

Park said the clips 'look like a well-prepared play' scripted by the North Korean government. He added that 'North Korea is striving to emphasize that Pyongyang is an 'ordinary city'' and that leadership 'is very interested in how the outside world views them'. But why?

Ha Seung-hee, a research professor of North Korean studies at Dongguk University, said North Korea could be attempting to come across as a 'safe country' to encourage increased tourism for its struggling economy – particularly after the immense impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Although the country's borders remain closed to tourists, Ha said 'the pandemic is going to end at some point, and North Korea has been concentrating on tourism for economic purposes'.

Indeed, experts think these videos 'represent an attempt by Pyongyang to get people to like them'. Dr Colin Alexander, a Political Communications senior lecturer specialising in East Asian politics at Nottingham Trent said:

This, when they've spent most of their time up to now, encouraging the international community to be scared of them.

Sources used:

The Telegraph: 'The North Korean influencers behind Kim Jong-un’s new propaganda push'

CNN: 'They eat ice cream and read ‘Harry Potter,’ but these North Korean YouTubers aren’t what they seem'

Daily Mail: 'Kim Jong Un uses child 'influencers' to spread North Korean propaganda to the world: Girls talk about their idyllic lives on social media (despite the internet being BANNED in their country)'