North Korea targets tight jeans, long hair, piercings in stronger crackdown, report finds

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North Korea has issued a ban on tight jeans and dyed hair in an effort to curb “capitalist” fashion trends that have leaked through its borders.

The country’s community regime has imposed the measure through its Socialist Patriotic Youth League, which is now reportedly deploying patrols that will report citizens who have dyed hair, wear their hair too long, wear tight jeans or T-shirts with foreign words, among other things, Radio Free Asia reported Tuesday.

“At the end of last month, the Socialist Patriotic Youth League held an educational session nationwide, where they defined the act of imitating foreign fashion and hairstyles as ‘capitalist flair,’ and examples of ‘anti-socialist practices,'” a resident of the North Korean city Hamhung told RFA.

“This time the crackdown mainly targets women in their 20s and 30s. If they are caught, they are made to wait on the side of the road until the patrols can finish their crackdown in that area. Only then will they be taken to the youth league office in the district, where they must write letters confessing their crimes. They must then contact someone at home to bring acceptable clothes for them, and then they are released,” the resident added.

The crackdown comes as North Korea continues to ramp up its ballistic missile tests. A report from the state media organization KCNA said North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un held an “invincible power that the world cannot ignore and no one can touch,” Reuters reported.

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