Kathrine Frich
Those found guilty face sentences in labor camps, the same camps used in North Korea’s system of political repression.
Those found guilty face sentences in labor camps, the same camps used in North Korea’s system of political repression.
Women in North Korea punished for cosmetic surgery
The regime now considers breast implants a “bourgeois whim,” and women who altered their bodies in secret risk severe penalties.
In Sariwon, special forces are mobilized to eliminate this supposed “decadence.”
Cosmetic surgery is framed not as self-expression but as a direct challenge to socialist norms.
Visual inspections ordered by party officials
Communist Party members have been instructed to visually judge women’s busts for signs of modification.
Those believed to have implants must then undergo further physical examinations at local hospitals.
This system places all women under surveillance for conformity, combining authoritarian control with shame.
Surgeons and patients face criminal charges
Illegal surgeries use implants smuggled in from China, carried out by underground doctors.
The state threatens that both patients and doctors “caught will be criminally punished, including imprisonment in labor camps, on charges of anti-socialist behavior.”
This policy criminalizes bodily autonomy and medical care.
Public trials used to intimidate
In Sariwon, two young women (in their 20s) were tried publicly last month for clandestine breast augmentation.
They justified their actions by saying they wanted to “improve” their bodies, but the court branded them “obsessed with vanity.”
A judge said they had become “a poisonous weed that destroyed the socialist system.”
Kim Jong Un doubles down on ideological purity
Since 2011, Kim has ruled with a tight grip over all aspects of life.
Now, he labels cosmetic surgery as anti-socialist, aligning the crackdown with broader efforts to suppress foreign influence.
This latest rule is part of a pattern: earlier this year, even hotdogs (a Western food) were banned, with offenders risking labor camp sentences.
Women’s bodies turned into ideological battlegrounds
Women believed to have changed their bodies are not just medical subjects but political ones.
The regime treats cosmetic enhancement as betrayal of ideology; visible conformity is mandated.
The inspection and punishment regime reduces women’s bodies to instruments of state doctrine.
Punishment extends to labor camps
Those found guilty face sentences in labor camps, the same camps used in North Korea’s system of political repression.
Punishments for “anti-socialist behavior” are used to enforce ideological discipline, not just law.
This continues North Korea’s long history of mixing crime and ideology.
This article is made and published by Kathrine Frich, which may have used AI in the preparation
