Louis Cole, who has almost 2 million subscribers on his FunForLouis YouTube channel as well as more than 815,000 Twitter followers, came under fire after uploading footage from a week-long trip to the country.
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Cole showcases the country’s skateboard parks, surfing and water slides.
In some of his latest videos, Louis – who has more than 800,000 followers on Twitter – can be seen visiting a 43-floor hotel with a pool, bowling alley and massage parlour.
But since posting the videos online, the vlogger, who is also known as Fun with Louis, has been criticised for not discussing North Korea’s human rights abuses.
Now Louis’s glossy vlogs have been accused of being propaganda tools for the communist nation, with a number of YouTube comments slamming them for “helping to fund an oppressive government”.
But in a video released on Wednesday night, Cole denied the accusations, saying: “I know that makes good headlines but there’s no truth to that whatsoever”.
“I’m trying to focus on positive things in the country and combat the purely negative image we see in the media”.
He said: “I do not agree with the North Korean ideologies but I do care for, and love, the people there”.
“I’m not an investigative journalist, I don’t do political commentary”.
He said he went on “an organised tour” as a tourist, before adding: “As much as we can be sceptical about how much was real and how much was staged, that is what I experienced and I can only share with you guys what I experienced”. “There are other places on the internet that you can go to find those kinds of things”. Over seven videos, Louis aimed to “connect with local people and learn more about their culture” in order to spotlight a greater need to be educated on North Korea beyond its tragedies and controversies – “I think the future of our relationship… with North Korea is fully dependant on how well we know them”. The report said: “These crimes against humanity entail extermination, murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, rape, forced abortions and other sexual violence… the enforced disappearance of persons and the inhumane act of knowingly causing prolonged starvation”.
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Human Rights Watch says “all basic freedoms have been severely restricted” there.
