North Koreans have been banned from having piercings and face new restrictions on ‘Western clothing’ including jeans as their dictator leader, Kim Jong-un, has launched a nationwide crackdown on citizens.
According to Japan’s Asia Press, the rules have been tightened ahead of the 7th Congress of North Korea’s Workers’ Party.
Ishimaru Jiro, a Japanese journalist working with citizen reporters inside North Korea, wrote: ‘A growing number of North Korean people are infatuated with Western culture. The crackdown will continue until the end of the upcoming gathering (the 7th Congress).’
According to the Daily Telegraph, citizens will be monitored by a growing group of youths loyal to Kim Jong-un.
Rimjin-gang, a North Korean news website supported by AsiaPress, said the ‘inspection’ units ‘target supposed capitalist tendencies such as length of skirts, the shape of shoes, T-shirts, hairstyles, and clothes.
It comes just months after it was reported that Kim Jong-un was ordering men to copy his ‘ambitious’ hair style limiting growth to a maximum length of 2cm.
Anyone breaching the restrictive guidelines faced having their hair shorn by authorities, especially in universities, who have been warned to watch out for any capitalist styles.
Women were advised to copy his wife, Ri Sol-ju’s bob.