North Korea is cracking down on breast implants for women, threatening those who have undergone the procedure with severe prison sentences. The country’s leader – Kim Jong-un – is reported to have instructed undercover agents and neighbourhood patrols to hunt down those performing and undergoing the cosmetic surgery.
Anyone found to be engaging in the “rotten capitalist act” can expect to do time in one of North Korea’s brutal labour camps. Recently, a man and two women were put on public trial after being arrested and charged with the new offence. The man, a dropout from medical school, smuggled the silicone into North Korea from China and was carrying out the breast implants at his home, when police stormed his apartment.
A public trial was held in mid-September at the cultural hall in the central district of Sariwon, according to the South Korean newspaper the Daily NK.
Among evidence presented to the court were medical tools, imported silicone and bundles of cash.
The three accused stood with their heads bowed on stage throughout the court session, as the prosecution put forward its case.
The prosecutor told the court: “Women living in a socialist system have been corrupted by bourgeois customs and have committed rotten capitalist acts.”
In their defence, the women pleaded that they had only wanted to improve their figures and didn’t believe that was a crime. However, their pleas fell on deaf ears, as the judge promised to mete out “strict punishment” for their brazenly “anti-socialist act”.
During the trial, the two women were subjected to a physical examination by agents of North Korea’s Security Bureau, shocking many of the public attending the trial.
Later, the court announced that women will now be subjected to intensive investigations to determine whether they have undergone any cosmetic procedures.
A source told NK: “Strike teams have already been deployed in central districts of Pyongyang and are operating in plain clothes.
“Women or doctors caught will face criminal punishment, including terms in labour training camps, on charges of anti-socialist behaviour.”
The Human Rights’ group Amnesty International has criticised North Korea for attempting to assert “total control” over people’s lives.