YouTube Channel 2 North Korean Boy Attracts Expert Attention: Like Dramas Specially PREpared

Capture the screen of Olivia Natasha-YuMi Space DPRK's YouTube channel

JAKARTA - The image shown is like other Youteber vlogs. About daily life and tourist sites. But this vlog belonging to two North Korean boys pulled security experts. The young woman broke the refrigerator filled with loli ice. A moment later, he took out some to show the camera.

"It's a funny taste of milk," he said in English while pointing to the cartoon packaging with a smile.

"And this taste of fruit."

After finally selecting the ice cream, he bit it, stating: "The business is very delicious."

The four-minute video has been watched more than 41,000 times on Olivia Natasha-YuMi Space DPRK's YouTube channel. This video belongs to YuMi who lives in North Korea, the most isolated and closed country in the world.

The YouTube channel, created last June.

But experts feel, not everything is as seen in these videos. The image shown contains normal life, not poverty under the dictatorship of leader Kim Jong Un.

They feel that YuMi and others are most likely linked to high-ranking officials and may be part of a propaganda campaign to change the country's international image. So the discussion is not just about nuclear weapons.

"It looks like a well-prepared drama written by the North Korean government," said Park Seong-cheol, a researcher at the North Korea Center for Human Rights Database.

For decades, North Korea has been relatively closed from the outside world, with strict restrictions on freedom of expression, freedom of movement, and access to information.

This is why YuMi not only has access to film-making devices but also YouTube is considered not an ordinary North Korean.

"Regarding the outside world is impossible for the population," said Ha Seung-hee, a professor of research on North Korean studies at Dongguk University.

YuMi is not the only North Korean YouTuber to turn around: an 11-year-old who calls himself Song A debuted on YouTube in April 2022 and has earned more than 20,000 subscribers.

My favorite book is 'Harry Potter' written by JK Rowling, Song A claims in one of the videos, raising the first book of the series very surprising given North Korea's strict rules that prohibit foreign culture, especially from Western countries.