How Kim Jong-un’s regime exerts control over women’s bodies
In an isolationist state seeking to exert total control over its citizens, any deviation in outward appearance can be punished with an uncertain fate in a labour camp.
Kim Jong-un’s regime was this week reported to be cracking down on young women who have had illegal breast implants and other forms of cosmetic surgery.
North Korea’s security services are said to be using undercover agents and neighbourhood watch groups to catch those carrying out and undergoing the procedures.
The crackdown, however, only tells part of the story.
One defector has said that the totalitarian regime controls ‘everything from fashion to the way that you sit’ — with blue jeans, hair dye and short skirts being banned.
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The repression of self-identity is about more than modesty or possible health complications arising from illegal surgery; it is a way of ensuring compliance in a state where, according to Amnesty International’s latest report, food shortages worsened last year and where arbitrary arrests and detention are widespread.
Dr Sarah Son, senior lecturer in Korean studies at the University of Sheffield, says: ‘North Korea is a country which has an incredible level of social control and has managed that successfully for a long time.
‘Essentially, this is so Kim Jong-un and the elite of the regime can maintain their rule. It is a regime which was built on maintaining the hearts, minds and bodies of individuals.
‘They are components in a national regime.’
Dr Son traces the development of the state’s grip on people’s lives back to the regime’s post-World War II origins and the need to build an ideology, which required keeping people subscribed to propaganda and isolated from outside information.
(Picture: Xinhua/Shutterstock)
‘Individuality is always dangerous,’ she says.
‘Individual thinking is different to the thoughts that the North Korean regime wants people to have. If they have different thoughts, they might not be as obedient, so it’s all tied to conformity.
‘Both men and women’s bodies are tied to rules around dress and the model citizen. If you look at the propaganda, there are a lot of compilations of the soldier, the farmer, the teacher, the nurse and they are dressed in modest costumes related to these fields.
‘Challenging that by wearing clothes that are too short, too tight or carry illegal English text — something women have been publicly shamed for — signals external influence and the threat of punishment, whereas the North Korean woman should be the wife, the worker; pure and strong.
‘It’s not always practical in daily life; for example you can’t wear heels while you are working in the field, which is tolerated.’
In the latest crackdown, a doctor who performed breast augmentation surgery was put on trial along with two women who underwent the illegal procedure, according to South Korean media outlet Daily NK.
The medical school dropout was said to be using silicone smuggled in from China in a procedure at his home when he was caught.
'Regime controls how you sit': The defector's story
A North Korean defector has described the repressive controls that dictate every aspect of daily life in the secretive country.
Speaking under anonymity, the person said: ‘In North Korea, the regime controls everything from fashion to the way that you sit. Blue jeans, hair dye, and short skirts are all prohibited in North Korea.
‘All students must wear uniforms and badges with portraits of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il every day, from the beginning of elementary school to the end of university. Officers are everywhere in cities to monitor every North Korean, making sure that they are all wearing their badges, not wearing blue jeans, and not dyeing their hair.
‘When I was in school, I had to wear a school uniform that had to be immaculately clean. Each class had roughly thirty-five students, and of those, around five students became leaders in the class according to their songbun, a social classification ranking.’
Sharing their story with the Association for Asia Studies in 2018, the person continued: ‘Most of my childhood was spent during what is called the March of the Suffering, or the Great Famine. Some of us lacked food, and many of my classmates could not come to school.’
A trial reportedly took place in the northern city of Sariwon, where the doctor and the two women in their 20s kept their heads bowed, no doubt fearful of a regime which, according to reports gathered by Amnesty, executes people just for accessing foreign media.
Diktat-style condemnation was heaped on the accused by the prosecutor, who was quoted as saying they had been ‘corrupted by bourgeois customs and have committed rotten capitalist acts.’
The judge promised ‘strict punishment’ after saying the trio had taken part in an ‘anti-socialist act’, according to NK.
A separate report by the media outlet suggests those found guilty of altering their body image face being sent to harsh labour camps.
While life for both sexes carries varying degrees of repression, women also face an extra burden of living in a patriarchy, according to Dr Son, who visited the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in 2011.
‘Men suffer gravely, as do women, but women have a double burden,’ she says. ‘They are mothers and home-makers but are also told they are needed in the field or manufacturing products to sell in markets to feed their family and support their community.’
Another role women play is in the ‘inimban’ neighbourhood watch groups, which are said to be playing a Big Brother-style role in the clampdown on cosmetic surgery.
The organisations have been tasked with identifying women whose bodies have changed and sending them to hospitals for examinations to confirm whether surgery was done, according to NK.
Their exercise of state power is said to run in tandem with investigators posing as patients in another measure being used to crack down on the illicit procedures.
‘It’s often a married, middle-aged woman who is head of the inimban and it’s very strategic,’ Dr Son said.
‘It’s women against women, with one leader responsible for around 20 families. She will have eyes on everyone.’
While the desire for cosmetic surgery reflects external influences seeping through, organisations monitoring North Korea say there has been a clampdown on freedom of expression in recent years.
‘The elite can push the boundaries a tiny bit in terms of things like modernising fashion and hairstyles, knowing they have a degree of protection with their status,’ Dr Son says.
‘Between Kim Jong-un coming to power in 2011 and 2020 we did see a little bit of him of trying to buy back or force people’s attention on their own national pride by mimicking some aspects of popular culture from outside in a North Korean style.
‘For example, there was a female North Korean K-pop group, which was a case of “we can do this too” if you like.
‘But the regime never felt really in control of that effort, so since 2020 they have been trying to keep any of the external influences out.
‘They have been cracking down and have gone back to full-on control over ideas, hearts, minds, style and fashion.’
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