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With young women being dragged to hospitals for body checks, Kim Jong Un’s expanding crackdown is targeting not just what citizens say or wear, but how they look
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. (KCNA via REUTERS)
North Korea has intensified a months-long crackdown on what it calls “anti-socialist” behaviour, and breast implants are now at the centre of it. A sweeping state order has authorised neighbourhood surveillance, undercover sting operations, and hospital examinations to identify women suspected of undergoing banned cosmetic surgeries. Those found guilty face public shaming, labour camps, or worse.
The ban on breast augmentation, which authorities describe as a “rotten capitalist act,” is part of a broader push by North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un’s regime to stamp out what it sees as foreign cultural contamination. A directive issued by Pyongyang’s public security department in July called for urgent action to stop the spread of “bourgeois customs” among young women, citing a surge in breast and eyelid surgeries as evidence of rising Western vanity during the summer months.
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What Triggered The Latest Orders?
The crackdown gained momentum after a highly publicised trial was held in mid-September in Sariwon, a city 75 kilometres south of Pyongyang. Two women in their twenties and a doctor were put on stage before a large public audience for allegedly undergoing and performing breast enhancement procedures.
The doctor, according to South Korean outlet Daily NK, had dropped out of medical school and was performing surgeries at his home using silicone smuggled from China. Authorities apprehended him after infiltrating his residence, seizing surgical tools, imported implants, and bundles of cash, all of which were displayed as evidence during the trial.
The two women, standing with their heads bowed, told the judge they had chosen to undergo the procedure because they “wanted to improve their bodies.” But prosecutors said they had become “tainted by bourgeois customs” and were guilty of “rotten capitalist behaviour.”
One of the most striking lines came from the judge, who declared: “She had no intention of being loyal to the organisation and group, but was obsessed with vanity and ended up becoming a poisonous weed that was eating away at the socialist system.”
The judge concluded by promising “strict punishment” for all three defendants.
The Sariwon case wasn’t the only one. In July, a separate arrest was made in Pyongyang’s Notong River district, as per the Telegraph, where an oral surgeon was accused of performing two botched breast surgeries on a woman in her 30s, an incident that reportedly accelerated the regime’s clampdown.
How Are Women Being Targeted Now?
Following the trial, authorities rolled out aggressive enforcement measures. These steps were part of official city plans in Sariwon, which authorised local neighbourhood leaders to identify and report women suspected of undergoing banned procedures. Those flagged would be taken to hospitals for medical examinations to confirm whether surgeries had occurred.
Strike teams in plain clothes were reportedly deployed in central Pyongyang to catch underground doctors and clients. In some cases, female officers went undercover, posing as patients to expose unlicensed practitioners.
The crackdown caused visible panic in cities like Sariwon. Many women in their 20s and 30s now fear they could be subjected to humiliating body checks if suspected of altering their appearance.
Why Does North Korea Consider Breast Implants ‘Anti-Socialist’?
In North Korea, breast implants and other cosmetic procedures like double-eyelid surgery are not just seen as medical infractions, they are treated as ideological threats. These procedures are officially classified as “non-socialist acts” and are banned in all state medical institutions.
But the regime’s objections run deeper than legality. Cosmetic surgery is viewed as a symptom of “bourgeois corruption”, a sign that individuals are pursuing Western beauty standards, personal vanity, and capitalist ideals rather than collective discipline.
Altering one’s body, especially in a way associated with South Korean beauty culture, is cast as rejecting the moral fibre of socialism. For Kim Jong-un’s government, physical conformity is as important as political loyalty.
What Bans Have Come Before This?
This is not the first time Kim Jong-un’s regime has criminalised personal choices in the name of ideological conformity. Over the past year, North Korea has banned a wide range of cultural expressions seen as “foreign” or “capitalist.”
Among the most unusual bans:
- Language: Words like “ice cream,” “hamburger,” and “karaoke” have been banned. Citizens are forced to use long-winded state-sanctioned alternatives. For example, “hamburger” must be called dajin-gogi gyeopppang — literally “double bread with ground beef.”
- Food: Hot dogs have been outlawed entirely. Eating, selling, or even serving them has been labelled an act of treason. Some reports suggest that South Korea’s beloved street food tteokbokki, or spicy rice cakes, has also been blacklisted.
- Fashion and grooming: Short skirts, jeans, high heels, flashy logos, and unauthorised makeup are strictly prohibited. Hairstyles must conform to a list of government-approved cuts, with rules on acceptable length for men and women.
In North Korea, even a haircut must follow state guidelines, a reflection of how tightly the regime regulates personal choices.
What Does This Reveal About Life Under The Regime?
In most countries, cosmetic surgery is a personal decision; a matter of health, choice, or aesthetics. In North Korea, it is a political act, and now, a punishable one. The latest crackdown shows how deeply Kim Jong-un’s regime embeds ideological control into everyday life, extending control not just over speech, dress, or behaviour, but over the human body itself.
A recent United Nations review, cited by the BBC, described North Korea as having the most restrictive surveillance state in the world, warning that “no other population is under such restrictions in today’s world.”
The review documented instances where citizens were executed simply for watching foreign films or dramas, considered ideological crimes under Kim’s regime. It also noted that the state’s reach has expanded from political censorship into everyday life, with increasing reports of arbitrary detentions, public punishments, and enforced conformity.
With cosmetic surgery now part of the regime’s “anti-socialist” purge, the message is clear: in North Korea, even your body is not your own.
About the Author
Karishma Jain, Chief Sub Editor at News18.com, writes and edits opinion pieces on a variety of subjects, including Indian politics and policy, culture and the arts, technology and social change. Follow her @kar…Read More
Karishma Jain, Chief Sub Editor at News18.com, writes and edits opinion pieces on a variety of subjects, including Indian politics and policy, culture and the arts, technology and social change. Follow her @kar… Read More
October 04, 2025, 18:39 IST
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