Exclusive | YouTuber uses international marathon to infiltrate North Korea: I left with 1,000 more questions
When North Korea opened a marathon up to international competitors, one YouTuber realized it was his only chance to get himself — and his camera — inside the totalitarian country.“I’m not a runner, but they told me you have to be there in a month, and I made all the preparations and made it happen,” Harry Jaggard told The Post.“I’ve been making YouTube videos going to less visited areas of the world for a while now, and North Korea has been on my radar for years.”The experience, he said, was bizarre: “My tour guide said that you’ll go into North Korea with 100 questions and you’ll leave with 1,000 questions, and it’s so true.”The 27-year-old Brit had five days in Pyongyang, North Korea, this April and was shocked by how much he was allowed to film for his vlog-style YouTube channel.“I was not expecting [to be able to vlog] at all.
I thought that it would be very minimal, maybe a few clips that I would voice over,” he said.“To have the freedom that I was given was crazy.
They were very relaxed.”Jaggard and fellow athletes were treated to a curated tour of the nation’s capital, including the subway system, war museums, a beer joint, and monuments to the Workers Party and former leader Kim Jong-il.“They showed us the tour that they wanted to show, it was definitely the highlight reel.It’s like going on a tour of America but only seeing Las Vegas — like the shiny parts,” he said.Jaggard thinks the country didn’t quite understand what influencers are, and how a simple vlog camera can blow the cover of a country that prefers to keep their image under wraps.“I don’t think they realize how big some influencers are,” Jaggard, who has 2.43 million subscribers on YouTube, said.
“They say no journalists are allowed on the tour, and I think YouTubers are definitely in the gray area, because we’re not technically journalists, but you could argue that my piece was journalism — just not very good journalism.”Jaggard fle...