While President Joe Biden and South Korean President Moon Jae-in met in Washington on Friday, reports surfaced that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is concerned about another perceived threat to his regime – skinny pants and mullets. Kim allegedly fears examples of “decadent” Western influence among North Korean youth because he believes it could lead to a negative opinion of the country’s government. Jeans have reportedly been banned from North Korea for years, and pictures of “approved” hairstyles have circulated as well.
Kim reportedly believes that ripped and skinny jeans and showy haircuts are signs of an “invasion of a capitalistic society,” reports the U.K. Mirror. The claims that Kim banned these appears to stem from an op-ed published in the Rodong Sinmun, the state newspaper run by the ruling Worker’s Party. In the op-ed, the paper warned that other communist countries failed because they allowed Western influence to seep in. If North Korea does the same, it could fall “like a damp wall,” the op-ed claims, reports the Yonhap News Agency.
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“History teaches us a crucial lesson that a country can become vulnerable and eventually collapse like a damp wall regardless of its economic and defense power if we do not hold on to our own lifestyle,” the op-ed read. It also warned the youth of North Korea against the “exotic and decadent” capitalism lifestyle. “We must be wary of even the slightest sign of the capitalistic lifestyle and fight to get rid of them,” the op-ed read.
The op-ed’s publication comes at a time when Pyongyang is reportedly cracking down on controlling how its people think. In December, the government passed a strict new law banning the possession of South Korean videos. Other reports claim the provincial Youth League issued a new order on “proper” hairstyles. Mullets and other banned hairstyles could lead to “anti-socialist behavior,” the document read, reports the Express.
North Korea has also issued strong statements against K-pop bands because of the international success of groups like BTS. One of the North Korean propaganda websites reportedly compared pop singers’ contracts to “slavery” because they are “unbelievably unfair.” The artists are “detained at their training and treated like “slaves” after being robbed of their body, mind, and soul by the heads of vicious and corrupt art-related conglomerates,” the website read.
Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., Biden and Moon held their first meetings and a joint press conference on Friday. Biden made it clear he would not have one-on-one meetings with Kim unless he committed to talking about North Korea’s nuclear weapons. “What I would not do is what has been done in the recent past,” Biden said, reports CNBC. “I would not give him all he’s looking for, international recognition as legitimate, and give him what allowed him to move in a direction of appearing to be more serious about what he wasn’t at all serious about.”
