North Korea through the eyes of social media

By Steve Keenan

It has been fascinating recently to see a country open up through social media. In this case, North Korea.

There is now a 3G network in the country and, among others, journalists able to get hold of a Sim card have started to post a flow of images and video.

The first Instagram videos emerged this week, shot by David Guttenfelder, a photographer currently on assignment in the country for Associated Press (see photo, above).

It was reported on Global News and followed up by journalism student Catherine Sutherland on her blog.

Journalists work under restrictive conditions in North Korea and cannot film freely. Minders will often step in to stop photography or filming. But those shots that are taken and posted do not appear to be censored.

Rather than now seeing the occasional documentary from a journalist who entered posing as a tourist, there is a flow of social media starting to flourish.

Sky News reporter Mark Stone is also currently sending a stream of content out of North Korea. On his Twitterfeed, he is free to send out images - such as this model of a satellite North Korea claims to have launched - unless otherwise told not to.

While it is fascinating to see social media giving some insights into life in the country, footage and images from inside are not necessarily new.

Beijing-based Koryo Tours has been operating trips into North Korea for 20 years, and the country’s trust in the operator has allowed it some extraordinary access in that time. Take, for example, a DRPK film the company promoted in 2002 going behind the scenes to film preparations for the Arirang Mass Games (the reason Sky is in the country now).

One of Koyro’s tour managers, Hannah, also has her own Instagram feed which has 300 images and videos, many from inside North Korea.

How interesting to see benign social media being put to such use, to part illustrate a country most of us have absolutely no knowledge of other than straight news reports usually involving missiles, threats, sanctions and repression. Social media has made another step forward into becoming the main source of travel information. And education.