North Korea has come up with yet another propaganda video, this time featuring an 11-year-old girl. The little girl, who introduced herself as "Song-a," posted 2 videos on her YouTube channel in perfect English, where she speaks about Pyongyang and the recent COVID-19 outbreak.
In the first video, posted a month ago, Song-a is talking about how "very beautiful and magnificent" Pyongyang is, adding further that the city is filled with amusement parks, which are not just fun for children but for adults too.
"Have you ever been to Pyongyang? Well, if you come here, you'll be totally surprised because literally everywhere you go there are amusements parks…endless things where children can enjoy," she said.
Apparently a Harry Potter fan, at the end of the video Song-a revealed the secret behind speaking in such perfect English, saying that her mother began teaching her from a very young age, The Daily Star reported.
Observing the girl's body language and behavior it appears as if the video was staged. It is however, unclear how many people were behind the camera or if the 11-year-old was actually reading from a script.
In a second video, posted two weeks ago, Song-a recorded herself speaking about the coronavirus outbreak in her city, which had been making headlines in the international media for quite some time. Insisting that "everyone is just fine," the little girl went on to add that everything is under control in Pyongyang.
"Just like this, everything is under control as it used to be and everyone is just fine!" she exclaimed.
Mentioning the time when she fell sick and her mother too was unwell, Song-a stated that the military medics had then arrived with the medicine and helped them. Praising the medical professionals, she said they were in-charge for their apartment and had been delivering medicines and other essentials to everyone who was feeling sick.
Expressing her gratitude to the medics, Song-a added that they became "like her brothers."
The video simultaneously shows the military personnel with a red cross arm band arriving at the girl's apartment and sitting in their living room delivering medicines. The way it is shot, there are high chances that all of this was staged.
Song-a later went on to claim that her neighbors and friends were also extremely helpful when her family was recovering as they often brought them dumplings, fresh vegetables and fruits from the local shops.
While there is no doubt that the videos do paint a very pretty picture of Pyongyang, it is worth discussing if these were posted by the 11-year-old's own free will as she wanted the world to know how happy she is under Kim Jong-un's authoritarian rule or she is an actor simply doing her job for the propaganda ministry.
As per NK News, the girl's YouTube channel is in many ways similar to sock puppet accounts created in Chinese and Russian and English by state-run Sogwang Media Corporation in Pyongyang.
A sock puppet account is usually controlled by a different user than the one seen on the account, so as to manipulate and communicate favorable and self-serving comments for a specific purpose.
