North Korean communist dictator Kim Jong-Un is now punishing people for copying his style.
According to a recent report, Un is starting to crack down on those citizens that might be trying to imitate his look, and people have even been banned from wearing leather trench coats.
He added the coat to his style in 2019, and it didn’t take long for rich North Koreans who could afford leather from China to add it to their own collections.
But the dictator’s style has recently been reproduced with cheap, fake leather, which made it accessible to the wider population.
A source from Pyongsong told Radio Free Asia the coat is also now a ‘symbol of powerful women’:
“During the military parade at the 8th Party Congress in January of this year, the Highest Dignity and all the high-ranking officials were shown wearing leather coats also. So now the leather coat has become a symbol for powerful women too.”
The source went on to say:
“As leather coats began to be recognized as a symbol of power, private clothing merchants asked trading company officials to import synthetic leather since September of this year.”
Ever since the coat became popular, police have started confiscating them and telling people it [challenges] the authority’ of their dear leader.
The source continued:
“The police respond to the complaints, saying that wearing clothes designed to look like the Highest Dignity’s is an ‘impure trend to challenge the authority of the Highest Dignity’. They instructed the public not to wear leather coats, because it is part of the party’s directive to decide who can wear them.”
Another source talked about people questioning the move for banning leather coats:
“Residents protest against the crackdown asking how there could be anything impure about the choice to wear a leather coat.”
Coats go for about $34 in North Korea, while the fake ones cost around $16.
According to the Korea Joongang Daily, the median North Korean salary is $0.66, and that tells a lot about why people choose fake leather coats…
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