North Korea bans girls from carrying shorts after deeming them ‘capitalist fashion’ (however males are nonetheless allowed to put on them)

North Korea has banned girls from carrying shorts within the newest crackdown on habits or practices deemed overseas or capitalist.

Under the newest enforcement of the hermit kingdom’s Rejection of Reactionary Thought and Culture Act, officers declared that any girl who wears clothes beneath the knee is flouting the rules of “socialist etiquette.”

It comes amid temperatures in extra of 30 levels Celsius in a rustic the place summers are lengthy and humid and the place most residents below dynastic chief Kim Jong-un have already got appalling residing requirements.

A resident of North Korea’s South Pyongan province informed Radio Free Asia on situation of anonymity: “The authorities stop women wearing shorts on the streets and say it is not in line with socialist tradition and lifestyle.

“A few years ago they were fighting hard against wide-leg pants and saying it was Japanese fashion,” she mentioned.

“Many women complain and ask why men can wear shorts and women can’t. They say the authorities are discriminating against us.’

For ordinary North Korean citizens, who are not among the privileged few close to Kim and his party elites, life is bleak.

Much of the country’s population suffers frequent famines, has little access to basic health care and is under constant threat of punishment for the slightest transgression.

A Human Rights Watch report on social freedoms in the country reads: “The government systematically denies all fundamental freedoms, including freedom of expression, public assembly, association and religion.

“Fear of collective punishment is used to silence dissent. Authorities in North Korea routinely send suspected government opponents to secret political detention camps in remote regions, where they are tortured by guards, starvation rations and forced labour.

It concludes: ‘The government is failing to protect the rights of many at-risk groups, including women, children and people with disabilities.’

Women caught flouting the newly introduced shorts rules therefore risk being slapped with a variety of disproportionate punishments.

While its southern neighbor has become one of the world’s most technologically advanced countries and thriving economies, North Korea has become a pariah state.

Kim Jong-un, the third member of the Kim bloodline to take power in North Korea, has dumped nearly all of his country’s wealth and resources in pursuit of an obsessive mission: cultivating the world’s most powerful “strategic arsenal.” to missiles and nuclear units. .

All the whereas he has ramped up the anti-Western and anti-capitalist rhetoric, elevating North Korean residents to view South Korea and far of the remainder of the world as a risk to their very existence that should be eradicated in any respect prices. contested.

Last week, Kim fired his military’s high basic and known as for higher preparations for the potential of battle, a lift in weapons manufacturing and enlargement of army workouts.

Kim made the remarks at a Central Military Commission assembly that mentioned plans for countermeasures to discourage North Korea’s enemies, which it didn’t identify, the state information company KCNA reported.

The nation’s high basic, Chief of General Staff Pak Su Il, was “fired,” KCNA reported, with out elaborating. He had been in his function for about seven months.

Pak was changed by General Ri Yong Gil, who beforehand served because the nation’s protection minister, in addition to the highest commander of its typical forces.

Ri was additionally beforehand the military chief of employees. When he was changed in 2016, his resignation and subsequent absence from official occasions led to stories in South Korea that he had been executed. He reappeared a number of months later when he was appointed to a different senior place.

Kim additionally set a goal for increasing arms manufacturing capability, the report mentioned, with out offering particulars. Last week he visited arms factories the place he known as for extra rocket motors, artillery and different weapons to be constructed.

Photos launched by KCNA confirmed Kim pointing to Seoul and areas across the South Korean capital on a map.

The United States has accused North Korea of ​​supplying Russia with weapons for its battle in Ukraine, together with artillery shells, rockets and missiles. Russia and North Korea have denied these claims.

Kim additionally known as on the army to conduct workouts with the nation’s newest weapons and tools to maintain its troops prepared for battle, the report mentioned.

North Korea will host a militia parade on September 9 to mark the seventy fifth anniversary of Republic Foundation Day. North Korea has various paramilitary teams that it makes use of to bolster its armed forces.

The US and South Korea are holding army workouts between August 21 and August 24, which the North considers a risk to their safety.