With her bookshelf crammed with Harry Potter books, her teddy bears and pigtails, Song A looks like any other little girl.
But this 11-year-old is the latest social media star to emerge from a brutal and mysterious dictatorship.
Song A made her debut on YouTube earlier this year, greeting her new audience with a big, confident smile and perfect English.
She explained that she lives in Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea.
"Pyongyang, where I live, is a very beautiful, magnificent city. Have you ever been to Pyongyang?" she asked.
She described Pyongyang as a city full of "endless things our children could enjoy", and insisted people would be "completely surprised" if they came to visit.
Launched in January, with the first video released in April, Song A's channel has attracted more than 12,600 subscribers on YouTube.
She is also the youngest North Korean YouTuber — almost certainly backed by the regime — as its ruler, Kim Jong Un, hopes to rebrand the country for the digital age.
Who is Song A?
Song A has attracted coverage from South Korean and Chinese media, which have focused on her fluent English as well as her British accent.
In her introductory video, Song A — who said she is a Year 5 student — explained that her mother taught her English from an early age.
She also claimed to be a fan of British author J.K.Rowling, while holding a bilingual copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in English and Chinese.
South Korean media reported that Song A is actually the daughter of a North Korean diplomat who once worked in London.
The five videos uploaded to her channel portray a colourful and comfortable life for the girl, who vlogs her journeys to get shaved ice with friends, visit a children's hospital and have fun in a water park.
However, there are also moments when Song A seems to be working hard to promote the narratives of the authoritarian regime.
In her second video, which was released in June, Song A vlogged about being quarantined at home with her mother while they had COVID-19.
The video was uploaded when the country was in a national lockdown due to a suspected wave of the virus that began in May.
At the time, officials at the World Health Organization raised concerns about North Korea's ability to control the outbreak, due to its vulnerable public health system and lack of COVID-19 vaccines.
However, Song A claimed "everyone is just fine" during the lockdown.
She recorded two military doctors visiting her home, giving her unspecified medicine while checking her temperature.
"At that moment, me and my mum just cried and cried like a baby," said Song A, calling the military doctors her "brothers".
She also said she received fresh vegetables and fruits from the neighbourhood's grocery store "every two or three days".
There have been concerns that North Korea's agricultural issues in recent years might worsen daily supplies during the country's COVID-19 lockdowns.
"Everything is under control as it used to be," claimed Song A.
Last week, North Korea announced the end of its COVID-19 lockdown.
However, the number of confirmed cases in North Korea remains unknown, as the country only recorded the number of people with "fever symptoms".
The privileged girls of Pyongyang
Internet access in North Korea is heavily restricted to an elite few, and they are likely subjected to heavy surveillance.
In 2016, North Korea announced plans to block YouTube inside the country to further control outside communication.
However, even while preventing its own citizens from accessing the platform, the regime has long tried to make its presence known on the site.
Early in 2017, YouTube shut down two North Korean propaganda channels that shared state TV news clips, citing violation of its community guidelines.
It's believed the channels were operated by North Korea's supporters and the regime's propaganda department.
In 2020, a young North Korean YouTuber named Un A her English-speaking channel, "Echo of Truth", attracted international attention.
The channel initially showcased Un A's daily life in Pyongyang, from visiting her school and college to local department stores and entertainment facilities.
She called herself "an ordinary Korean girl from an ordinary family".
It later took on a more-familiar propaganda tone, with Un A starting to praise Kim Jung Un as "the great leader", while she pushed back criticism against North Korea.
An investigation by NK News found Un A's channel was run by North Korea's state media company.
The channel is now deleted on the platform, and Un A claimed that YouTube terminated her channel, citing violation of community guidelines.
Until this young generation of YouTubers came along, the only North Korean woman that most Westerners were familiar with was Ri Chun Hee.
The North Korean state TV anchor was famous for her bombastic delivery and candy pink hanbok dress.
She has been praised by Kim Jong Un as one of the "true patriots" and was given a luxurious apartment by the regime's leader.
Eun Ah Cho — a lecturer in Korean studies at University of Sydney who followed Un A — said she was a different approach for the nation's propaganda wing.
"[Compared to Ms Ri] Un A was fresh. She was so young, and she looked very smart. So many commenters, and also the global audience, really liked her," Dr Cho said.
"They think they could finally see some natural part of North Korea, or North Korean women."
However, with both Un A and Song A residing in Pyongyang — the nation's richest city — it is worth noting that their daily life may not offer a full picture of North Korean women's living conditions, according to Dr Cho.
"It is not a secret that Pyongyang is a privileged city, even to the global audience," she said.
"And if you live there — not just working there — then that means you are from high class.
"So is this ordinary daily life? Yes, for those people in Pyongyang. But if you are talking about people in the rural areas, then you can say it's not an ordinary life."
North Korean propaganda goes virtual
For decades, the North Korean regime did not have a huge interest in initiating communication with the outside world, according to Weiqi Zhang, associate professor in political sciences at Suffolk University.
Instead, they allowed Westerners to visit the country on tightly-controlled guided tours.
Tourism has been a key economic source for North Korea. An estimate of 125,000 foreign tourists visited the country in 2018, with the majority of them coming from China.
"They are not interested in telling others about their own country, but they are more comfortable about inviting others to go to their countries to take a look," Professor Zhang said.
However, he said, the launch of these YouTube channels shows that North Korea wanted to improve its international reputation and challenge the stereotype from the rest of the world.
"Everybody has this impression that North Korea is closed, poor, very authoritarian or even totalitarian," he said.
"So what they are trying to do is probably not to completely change international perception, but to at least make people question the negative information that they receive from mainstream media."
YouTube is not the only foreign video platform that North Korea has tried to infiltrate.
On Chinese social media platforms, some North Korean vloggers — mostly young women — have posted videos to share their daily life in Pyongyang.
One of the most famous channels, NewDPRK, had around 80,000 subscribers on bilibili, a social video platform targeting Gen Z audiences in China.
NewDPRK also appeared on YouTube and China's Twitter-like Weibo social media platform, where it had more than 750,000 followers.
An investigation by NK News shows the channel was run by North Korea's state media company, Sogwang Media Corporation.
Yet the channel also seems to collaborate with China-based media companies as its Weibo IP address indicated it was based in Jiangsu province, China.
Professor Zhang said North Korea wanted to make a good impression on the Chinese public, whose perception of the country has turned more negative than a decade before, because of North Korea's nuclear program.
"This kind of negativity in society would, potentially, affect the Chinese foreign policy on North Korea," Professor Zhang said.
"[So Pyongyang] wants to make sure that the Chinese people will not be the reason why the Chinese government will turn negative or turn their back on North Korea."
The ABC has contacted NewDPRK and YouTube for comment.
China also adopts a similar strategy
North Korea isn't the only nation trying to shape its narrative on Western social media platforms such as YouTube.
Its neighbour, China, launched a global campaign in 2016 mobilising state media to build their presence on both traditional and social media platforms in the West.
It was all part of a bid to promote tailored China stories to the world, according to a report by Freedom House.
Many Chinese individual vloggers also used YouTube — which was also blocked in China — to expand their market for more profits.
In 2017, Chinese online influencer Li Ziqi made her debut on YouTube, and her videos about country life in China immediately attracted international attention.
She now has more than 17 million followers on YouTube.
Li's videos have been criticised for romanticising life in rural China.
However, it's the Cottagecore aesthetic of her videos that makes her as potentially appealing to a woman in Beijing as it would to a woman in Bondi, according to Shaohua Guo, associate professor in Asian languages and literature at Carleton College.
"I think the entry point for her to establish a presence is really about the food, [farming] labour and presentation about an nostalgic view of a rural China that really wins both Chinese and non-Chinese audiences," Dr Guo said.
As YouTube becomes a platform for nations and individuals to undertake political and cultural exchanges, Dr Guo said it was important to remain open-minded.
"In a way, [Li Ziqi's videos] show the crucial role that the popular culture plays in inspiring imagination that transcends the geopolitical boundaries," Dr Guo said.
"So, I think, one thing to keep in mind is just to be open about [such] content."
