SOUTH KOREANS PAY CLOSE INTEREST TO NORTH

While inter-Korean ties may have lapsed back into deep freeze, interest in the South, especially among young people, about what everyday life is like in their isolated northern neighbor is rising, changing the landscape, some experts say, for the long-term future of the relationship, Kyodo News said.

Social media is playing a large part in giving air to new perspectives, with a number of millennial North Korean defectors going online to share their experiences of life back across the border, some of them even becoming YouTube stars in their adopted land. A recent smash-hit TV drama, meanwhile, has presented what critics view as a groundbreaking portrayal of the North, including what ordinary life is like for its more affluent citizens.

Kang Nara is a 23-year-old YouTuber who came to South Korea in December 2014. In her videos, she talks about her early life as a member of the affluent class herself in the North and chronicles her adult life in the ultramodern South.

Her channel, "Nol-sae Nara," has over 100 videos and more than 233,000 subscribers. "Nol-sae" is a phrase used in North Korea to refer to people who are wealthy without having had to work too hard for it.

In one of her most popular clips, she introduces products from South Korea that North Koreans crave, and relates her own experiences using them. In the North, South Korean products can be very expensive and out of reach for many.

Kang said that when she started uploading her videos several years ago, she simply wanted to tell her story through her own "me-media" -- a story based on her years as a member of a well-off family in North Korea.

"The reason I got attention from the public in the first place was because I was wealthy even when living in North Korea," said Kang, who rose to public notice after an appearance on South Korean TV to talk about her experiences as a defector.

"I wanted people to know what rich people's lives are like in North Korea," she said.

Today over 33,700 North Koreans live in the South after fleeing their country in the decades since the 1950-1953 Korean War ended in a cease-fire rather than a peace treaty, according to the Unification Ministry. Kang belongs to a new generation of defectors, those in their 20s and 30s who number over 19,200, according to the ministry's September data.

Kang, who is also active on Instagram, says young YouTube creators who fled the North like her are being born almost every day, although few may reach the success she has had.

"Out of about 50 North Korean defectors who actively upload video content on their YouTube channels, about 30 are young adults whose target viewers are younger generations of South Koreans," she said.