North Korea’s Bizarre New Propaganda Program

Video written by Ben Doyle

[lordsiomai]

Never thought I'd see the day where I hear a North Korean 11-year-old say "bonkers" in a perfectly British accent, but here we are.

[erictaylor]

When I was a kid in hospital, I never forgot why I was there, no matter how many cartoons were on the walls.

[johnladuke]

I really loved how Song'A gave such a natural and heartfelt endorsement of the children's hospital. Clearly her opinions and adventures are genuine average fun times for the people of Best Korea and I should go visit right away.

[felixsmdt]

These Hai videos get ever better. Last time the jurnals, and now investigative journalism. Props Sam

[trstmeimadctr]

The most surprising thing I learned today is that youtube wasn't banned in North Korea until 2016

[thatverseguy]

I did not expect to hear North Korea join the YouTube game. Would love to see who'd sponsor them or how they'd handle talking to the support team lmao.

[dave.]

its actually impressive how a 11 year old can speak a nearly perfect brittish english

[bertilhatt]

“This video sponsor is way cooler and better than North Korea” must have really make the marketing team at Factor happy.

[BoyProdigyX]

You can't be _too_ upset with these girls.They were born into families who probably just said, "This is what you're *going* to do", and neither of which probably even know what they're doing, nor the scope. Their UL's *have* to be either scripted first, or at LEAST approved before going live...

[Chris-icue]

I always thought you and Wendover were the same person, because your voices sound so similar. Now it all makes sense.

[UnoB]

Mom: *takes child to hospital for severe malnutrition*

Child: “Mom I’m not hungry anymore, these cartoons made me forget why we even came here!”

Edit: 2k likes damn guys😅 this is my most liked comment ever

[thebeardyyc]

I love how the girl describing the “football” match sounds like shes reading a translated description of what people do at sports events.

[dennis]

The young one has that RP English. It's quite telling about the education she has had.

[MuchWhittering]

I know people say North Korea is decades behind the rest of the world, so it's only appropriate that SongA speaks English like she's a 1950s English housewife.

[wandereringshadow]

I knew I wasn't going crazy. I saw this dude who went onto several trips to North Korea and he was being very... generous with his reviews of it, even after he returned and was safe to give his true oppinions.

[aardappeleten]

Song-A's british accent is so very odd, like some aristocratic british accent

[RedKincaid]

This makes me feel like I'm not crazy in thinking that some of the videos I've been recommended recently about NK history and culture were way too... generous in their portrayal. I had a video pop up about food shortages and one about the power grid and both ended up concluding that if it wasn't for the west NK would be the greatest place on earth to live and I could taste the propaganda. I was surprised because the videos looked and were presented like real educational videos but by the end I was really uncomfortable

[aperson]

Tbh the creepiest part of this(not really) is the amount of filters. You can't escape the ultra creepy body image ruining filters even in North Korea.

[andydyer]

4:20 “It may sound bonkers to you, but in our country Mother’s Day is celebrated on 16th November”

No no, not all. In fact a sea of bonkers, that unremarkable fact was a tranquil island of normality.

[petersmythe]

Regular people are allowed onto the national intranet. It's the global Internet that is banned for the vast majority of citizens.

As for smartphones, this is not that wierd among Pyongyang or Wonsan residents. North Korea has a semi-domestic cellphone manufacturing industry that modifies Chinese models of phone to be compatible with North Korean tech. They are expensive for the average person to afford, but not unobtainable. Curiously, one of the biggest factors for smartphones there is actually battery capacity due to the unreliable electricity.