What happens when you send a package to North Korea? A YouTuber tried it out to see if one of three packages could make it to the isolated country.
The German YouTuber MegaLag undertook an interesting experiment. He equipped three packages with an AirTag to find out if his packages could actually reach North Korea. In a second video nearly a year later, he also showed the reaction from DHL.
What did he send? In total, he sent three packages from Frankfurt am Main, each fitted with an Airtag. Airtags are small tracking chips that send a signal via Bluetooth and can then be located. To do this, you need to link the tags to your Apple account. This way, you can find the small devices even when they are on the other side of the world.
None of the three packages make it to North Korea, two are reported missing
Where did the first package end up? His first shipment sat in a DHL warehouse in Frankfurt for a month and did not move further. Almost 4 weeks later, there was some movement, as his package was sent to Beijing, China. It then did not move again and did not return to Germany.
DHL later explained in a statement (via youtube.com) that the package was supposed to be handed over to the local Chinese post for onward transport. However, due to “lack of air freight capacity”, the package was not transported to North Korea. Among other reasons, DHL stated it was simply that too little mail is sent to North Korea.
Where did the second package end up? The second package left Germany and appeared in South Korea a few days later. The second package was then returned to the YouTuber with a note stating that it had been accidentally sent incorrectly. He showed the returned package to the camera in a second video.
Where did the third package end up? The third shipment also made it to South Korea but was then sent back. DHL stated that North Korea would refuse all packages from abroad due to the Corona pandemic.
In the meantime, the third package has also made its way back to the YouTuber. Here, a note is stuck on the package stating that the recipient address is incorrect. And the YouTuber admits: Yes, there’s some truth to it that the person in North Korea probably does not exist. You can watch the entire experiment on YouTube (in English):
Two packages return, the AirTags last almost 2 years
What insights did the experiment provide? YouTuber MegaLag could not verify if any package actually made it to North Korea. None of his three test packages reached their destination. It is also interesting that only a single package made it somewhat close to North Korea and that two out of three packages were actually sent incorrectly.
Interestingly, the tracking data provided by DHL never truly matched the actual locations. It was only after the release of his video that DHL suddenly updated the status of his package.
Later, DHL responded to the YouTuber’s actions and explained that there were various reasons for the problems: The packages that landed in South Korea were a mistake on DHL’s part, and they apologized for it. The last package landed in Beijing and was correctly handed over to the Chinese post there. However, it failed here due to freight capacities, as insufficient mail is delivered to North Korea.
Is there also a positive takeaway? Yes, and that is the battery life of the AirTags. The small chips really surprised the YouTuber. The AirTag that DHL sent to Beijing, China, lasted almost 2 years. You can read how useful these AirTags can be directly on our website MeinMMO:
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