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Oh how beautiful is Pyongyang: What’s behind North Korea propaganda on Tiktok
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un
© KCNA / DPA
Channels like “northkoreanlife” attract millions of viewers on Tiktok. They show the supposedly carefree life in the country of ruler Kim Jong-un. But they can’t come from residents of North Korea because they don’t have access to the Internet.
The interest in the life of the North Koreans is great. No wonder: the country, which is largely isolated from the outside world, is a secret for many – recordings of how it really is there are rare. This is also because most people in North Korea have no access to the Internet. A large part of the country’s inhabitants are simply fobbed off with a kind of their own network called “Kwangmyong” – for the sake of censorship. It is therefore all the more astonishing that channels like “northkoreanlife” to make it seem like an influencer is touring the country undisturbed and telling everyone how great it is there.
Tiktok videos on North Korea click extremely well
This channel in particular is by no means a small light. With over 220,000 followers and tens of millions of views, the strikingly relaxed depictions of daily life in the country of ruler Kim Jong-un reach a huge audience. The videos always have a similar structure. Supposedly beautiful pictures of places in North Korea are shown, for example the capital Pyongyang. A computer voice explains what you see and how great it is.
There are videos of an alleged morning walk across the surprisingly empty streets of Kaesong, the orderly hustle and bustle of the capital’s subway, of the relaxed country life and lush green mountain landscapes that “the Western media” would withhold from people. There is even some kind of evidence that there are many western luxury cars in North Korea, like Mercedes or Audi. A post that seems to claim that everyone in North Korea has an umbrella seems a little odd.
It remains unclear where the videos come from. The glorified tone and the exclusively positive recordings give the impression that it could be state-controlled propaganda. Rüdiger Frank, Professor of Economics and East Asian Studies, says in an interview with “future zone“that it is by no means the Tiktok account of a simple North Korean. However, he states that he is not sure whether one is dealing with an “account active on behalf of the state and with state approval” or someone merely pursues private interests.
North Korea is very active on YouTube
However, it is reasonable to assume that North Korea is trying to present the country positively to the outside world via social media. With “Sally Parks“, a supposedly normal North Korean child, there were already such positive posts on YouTube. The “Mirror” writes that the girl is the daughter of a North Korean diplomat, who spent part of her childhood in London. Her perfect Oxford English confirms this. She makes a similar accusation “CNN” related to the Youtube channel of “Olivia Natasha“, a young woman, for example, shows up in a North Korean gym.
According to “Spiegel”, which also spoke to Rüdiger Frank, North Korea’s posts on social networks are primarily aimed at China, South Korea and Japan in order to present themselves as South Korea’s “poor but proud, strong and independent brother”. .
Supporters from abroad more likely than the state itself
Tiktok is made for this, they say. This is mainly due to how it works. The algorithm allows the first video to go viral. It also helps that you can easily download the videos and distribute them further. On the platform, however, people care less about sources or proof that they are real, their own recordings.
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Regardless of where the footage came from or what purpose it is intended to serve, the scenes are real, North Korea expert and journalist Martyn Williams told 38 North “watson“But he classifies the videos differently and considers them to be collections of tourist videos, each of which was created with a special permit.
However, he does not consider the Tiktok content to be state propaganda. Rather, Williams suspects supporters from abroad behind the channels, who collect videos and then put them on the platform in a beautified way. Among other things, he bases his suspicion on the fact that the posts actively rail against “Western media,” which is unusual for state-controlled propaganda.
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