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North Korean women face public trial for breast implants: ‘Consumed by vanity’
North Korea has launched a crackdown on breast enhancement and other forms of plastic surgery.
North Korea has launched a crackdown on breast enhancement and other forms of plastic surgery. One surgeon and two women, accused of getting breast implants, have already faced a public trial in the socialist East Asian country.
According to a report in Daily NK, Kim Jong Un’s government is now using neighbourhood patrols and secret service to identify women suspected of having undergone breast enhancement.
Breast enlargement procedures are classified as “non-socialist acts” in North Korea and cannot be performed legally.
Women stand public trial
One surgeon accused of covertly performing the illegal procedure was recently placed on a public trial, along with two women accused of having undergone breast enlargement. Both the women are in their 20s and reportedly wanted to improve their figures.
A source in southern North Hwanghae Province said: “In mid-September, at the cultural hall in the central district of Sariwon, a public trial was held for a doctor who had performed illegal breast surgery and for women who received the operations.”
The source said that the surgeon used silicone smuggled from China to perform the procedure illegally at his home.
“The surgeon, standing on the stage, kept his head bowed throughout the trial, and the two women in their 20s also could not lift their faces due to shame,” the source said.
Breast implants classified as anti-socialist
The prosecutor in the trial harshly criticised the breast implant procedure, calling it a “rotten capitalist act”.
“Women living under the socialist system have been tainted by bourgeois customs and engaged in rotten capitalist acts,” he said.
The judge had similar words of condemnation while promising “strict punishment” for the two women. “Instead of being loyal to the organization and collective, they were consumed by vanity and became poisonous weeds that erode the socialist system,” the judge said.
Crackdown on breast enhancement
North Korea’s Ministry of Public Safety issued an emergency crackdown order to the Pyongyang City Public Security Department on September 13. Neighbourhood watch leaders have been asked to identify women suspected of having undergone cosmetic procedures.
It was announced during the trial that women will be investigated to see that they have not undergone any procedures like breast enlargement or double eyelid surgery. The idea is to identify women whose bodies have changed noticeably and take them to the hospital for further examination.
