North Korea is launching a widespread crackdown on every part from marriage ceremony clothes to slang in a bid to counter South Korea’s affect, a brand new report reveals.
The report, launched by South Korea’s Unification Ministry, relies on the testimonies of a whole bunch of North Korean defectors.
These embrace the case of a 22-year-old man who was executed for admitting to listening to Korean music and distributing motion pictures, The BBC first reported last year.
North Korea described final 12 months’s report as “slander and fabrication” however has not but responded to the brand new paperwork.
In response to info gathered, searches of houses have elevated since 2021 as officers search for indicators of overseas tradition, Yonhap Information Company reported.
Indicators are mentioned to incorporate sporting a white marriage ceremony costume or the groom carrying the bride on his again.
Individuals’s telephones may also be searched and messages and contacts checked for slang from South Korea, the report added.
Sun shades are additionally seen as counter-revolutionary, though North Korean chief Kim Jong Un is thought to put on a pair, the report mentioned. Nonetheless, his father additionally labeled sure on a regular basis clothes as counter-revolutionary – together with denims.
The precise penalties for these violations are unclear.
Nonetheless, the suppression of Korean manufacturing tradition appears to be much more extreme.
A 2020 legislation makes watching or broadcasting South Korean leisure punishable by dying.
This 12 months’s stories embrace an earlier public execution revealed by the BBC wherein a 22-year-old farmer was killed for listening to 70 songs, watching three movies and distributing them.
That is believed to be the one report up to now of an execution beneath the “Reactionary Ideological and Cultural Exclusion Regulation.”
A video from earlier this 12 months confirmed Two teenagers sentenced to hard labor for related crimes.
South Korea’s report comes amid rising tensions between the neighbors.
North Korea has despatched greater than 2,000 garbage-filled balloons throughout the border since final month, a few of which had been discovered to have parasites inside.
Final week’s assembly between Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin additional heightened tensions in relations between the 2 international locations.
It’s value noting that though the report has been launched yearly since 2018, that is solely the second time the report has been launched.
Beforehand, that they had not been launched to keep away from angering North Korea.
