It’s hard not to feel a sense of simultaneous discomfort and awe while watching the fascinatingly bizarre YouTube channel of Koryo Tours, a Beijing-based travel agency specializing in trips to North Korea.
We already knew that most North Korean public outreach attempts feel like a real-life uncanny valley, a pastiche of a happy kingdom—and these are no different. The videos hit all the major tropes of a welcoming, prosperous community, they’re missing one crucial ingredient—reality. It’s clear they’re trying to paint a picture of a vibrant, progressive cityscape to rival the world’s major urban centers. But without the people, the enthusiasm, and the actual, modern machinery, what we’re getting feels more like a ghost town stuck in the past.
https://gizmodo.com/meet-north-koreas-bizarre-english-language-social-media-649373106
Below are some of the more bizarre travel videos we’ve found, but you can head to their YouTube channel here for the whole bunch. Believe us—it’s worth the trip.
