8 ms·

North Korea: Men required to get Kim Jong-un haircuts

33 points by sarreph 13y ago

Theodores 13y ago
In multi-cultural countries people have significantly different hair. In North Korea hair is somewhat harmonised, i.e. black and straight. Length is the only variable available to play with when it comes to style of cut. From their perspective this edict may be no more of a big deal than having to have your fingernails trimmed.
- dTal 13y ago
  And that wouldn't be strange at all - "Citizens are required to keep their fingernails between .8 and 3 millimeters long. Violators will be shot."
- xerula 13y ago
  You lack imagination about all the different things that can be done with uniformly black, straight, fine hair. Length is not the only variable, and there is still a huge range of hairstyles that people could choose from if they were free to do so. Also, if I was subject to an edict requiring me to trim my fingernails, that would be a pretty big deal to me. A big, intolerable deal. You imply that from their perspective it wouldn't be, but are you so much of a cultural relativist that you think such a perspective isn't seriously unhealthy?
  - Theodores 13y ago
    I am a troll with short, black hair! And cynical too!
willvarfar 13y ago
I was really expecting this to be an Onion article or something...
- antonius 13y ago
  I was too until I read the "North Korea" part. Then it all made sense.
  - S_A_P 13y ago
    Isn't North Korean media just one big onion bureau? With the unfortunate truth that what they report happens to be at the expense of a whole nation of people minus .01%?
wil421 13y ago
Look at the women in the center clapping, her face says it all. "Must clap harder or leader will do away with me." Someday these people are going to be free of oppression.
- JonnieCache 13y ago
  >Someday these people are going to be free of oppression. If only they had some natural resources, then the state of their government would be a massive moral issue for the world. Unfortunately until they strike oil they're just gonna have to rot.
  - wil421 13y ago
    Yea its like nations say Russia cant take Crimea. Yet NK can slaughter and oppress an entire nation and no one flinches.
    - JonnieCache 13y ago
      To be fair, russia can take crimea because nobody can stop them. NK can oppress because nobody gives a shit. (Also IIRC china protects them in order to irritate the west and to use as a bargaining chip.)
      - wj 13y ago
        China also props them up to avoid the NK government collapsing thus sending millions of North Korean refugees across the border.
      - BugBrother 13y ago
        >> NK can oppress because nobody gives a shit. Am I missing something? Are you judging people morally for not doing the impossible? Or are you just generally outraged by dirty realpolitik? I just can't see a third alternative to these non-starters: - China could stop the regime, maybe even without a catastrophe. How would you motivate China to do that, when the West today is as dependent on China as China is on the West? - The military way to help the NK population would be an economic and humanitarian catastrophe, not only in NK. Edit: I could agree with that position on e.g. Zimbabwe, but NK seems carefully designed by the junta to keep them safe by using their own population as hostages (as long as China don't sell them down the river). Edit 2: A third possibility is to offer the junta a better deal than to control the lives of many millions of slaves. But they are obviously happy as it is.
Istof 13y ago
as long as it's free (no pun intended)
- valarauca1 13y ago
  Everything is free in The Democratic Republic of Korea. Glorious Eternal Leader pays for everything. This is why everyone votes for socialism every time. Free healthcare, food, education, transportation.
  - Istof 13y ago
    even email is free over there
    - valarauca1 13y ago
      They even went and made it illegal to talk ill about the Eternal Glorious Leader, I mean how could speak ill of the creator of such a glorious socialist paradise?!
mavdi 13y ago
somebody blow up his little shitty head already
swayvil 13y ago
Excuse me but I find this haircut rather unattractive.. ONE MILLION YEARS DUNGEON!
nwh 13y ago
I don't follow the reasoning. It's a country that's stuck in a variety of awkward situations with its neighbours, isolated, famine stricken, and threatening to wage war on the South- yet they're worrying about the people having too much freedom with their 10 allowed haircuts? I can't begin to imagine what's going on in their minds. I suppose it could be a distraction from other issues, but restricting to 10 in itself seems almost unreal.
- brown9-2 13y ago
  You seem to be assuming that the country which has isolated itself so extremely is also led by rational people.
- kjjw 13y ago
  I think the point is that it doesn't matter what is going on in 'their' minds. All that matters is what is going on in the mind of one particular person.
  - JanezStupar 13y ago
    Do you honestly believe a single person can produce that much insanity?
    - kjjw 13y ago
      In a round about way, I think so. Did he suggest this? Perhaps not. Is he responsible for the environment that created this decision? I think so.
      - JanezStupar 13y ago
        I think that he is as much of a hostage as he is a perpetrator.
- snorkel 13y ago
  Fashion conformity is another type of crowd control. Also makes it easier to spot troublemakers in a crowd.
aurumpotest 13y ago
What about bald men? Will they be punished for not being physically able to replicate the hairstyle? It's just mental. Thank god they're not doing the same thing with David Cameron...
- snorkel 13y ago
  Bald adults and infants will be issued wigs.
jwmoz 13y ago
To be honest, I think he's got a pretty good fade.
sharkweek 13y ago
Honest question - let's say at some point in the future North Korea sees their current regime fall and a more democratic or at least benevolent dictatorship takes over. What sort of mass psychological issues are we looking at here? I can only imagine how the minds of the current citizenship work, would it be nearly impossible for those raised only knowing what they know to recover from the previous trauma?
- NotOscarWilde 13y ago
  I believe people everywhere in the world are used to supressing the difference between the stated ideals of their land (equality, liberty, free elections) and the reality (prejudices, xenophobia, racism, assassinations ordered by the government, voter sway via public ads). If our minds can supress the differences between ideals and reality in USA, Russia, India, Pakistan, Japan or any other country of residence, I believe North Koreans can do the same -- focus on their daily life and ignore the atrocities. All of that is just my opinion, obviously. My family adapted fine after the fall of the Soviet Union, but that's just anecdotal.
  - Touche 13y ago
    Bribery is still a major problem in Russia. It takes a long time for a population to adjust to things they are used to being part of every day life.
  - sharkweek 13y ago
    Interesting - I am curious if that's common in North Korea. I can imagine there are a lot of under the radar rumblings about how things are supposed to be as opposed to how they are. Thus I could assuming that most obedience is fear based as opposed to actual loyalty.
- S4M 13y ago
  I think you should see how the difference of mentality clashed between East and West Germans after the reunification, and amplify that a bit. I suspect it would take one or two generations to close the gap between the two Koreas after the hypothetical reunification.
gadders 13y ago
I know people hate on StratFor (for no good reason IMO) but the below article from them is an interesting summary: http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/ferocious-weak-and-crazy-north-korean-strategy http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/ferocious-weak-and-crazy-nort... "When the Soviet Union collapsed, North Korea was left in dire economic straits. There were reasonable expectations that its government would soon collapse, leading to the unification of the Korean Peninsula. Naturally, the goal of the North Korean government was regime survival, so it was terrified that outside powers would invade or support an uprising against it. It needed a strategy that would dissuade anyone from trying that. Being weak in every sense, this wasn't going to be easy, but the North Koreans developed a strategy that we described more than 10 years ago as ferocious, weak and crazy. North Korea has pursued this course since the 1990s, and the latest manifestation of this strategy was on display last week. The strategy has worked marvelously and is still working." I guess the haircuts would be the "crazy" part of the strategy.
mukundmr 13y ago
What is the authentic source for this? BBC says "it is reported". Who reported it and where?
ginko 13y ago
Kinda seems like the queue order during the Qing dynasty in China. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queue_%28hairstyle%29#Queue_Order https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queue_%28hairstyle%29#Queue_Or...
andyjohnson0 13y ago
Related: Hair, beards and power - Taking it on the chin [1] [1] http://www.economist.com/node/16743613 http://www.economist.com/node/16743613
MarkTee 13y ago
Wow, in 2005 they produced a hidden-camera series that outed "long-haired" men, revealing their names and addresses on national TV. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4157121.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4157121.stm

33 points by sarreph 13y ago

In multi-cultural countries people have significantly different hair. In North Korea hair is somewhat harmonised, i.e. black and straight. Length is the only variable available to play with when it comes to style of cut. From their perspective this edict may be no more of a big deal than having to have your fingernails trimmed.

dTal 13y ago
And that wouldn't be strange at all - "Citizens are required to keep their fingernails between .8 and 3 millimeters long. Violators will be shot."
xerula 13y ago
You lack imagination about all the different things that can be done with uniformly black, straight, fine hair. Length is not the only variable, and there is still a huge range of hairstyles that people could choose from if they were free to do so. Also, if I was subject to an edict requiring me to trim my fingernails, that would be a pretty big deal to me. A big, intolerable deal. You imply that from their perspective it wouldn't be, but are you so much of a cultural relativist that you think such a perspective isn't seriously unhealthy?
- Theodores 13y ago
  I am a troll with short, black hair! And cynical too!

willvarfar 13y ago

I was really expecting this to be an Onion article or something...

antonius 13y ago
I was too until I read the "North Korea" part. Then it all made sense.
- S_A_P 13y ago
  Isn't North Korean media just one big onion bureau? With the unfortunate truth that what they report happens to be at the expense of a whole nation of people minus .01%?

wil421 13y ago

Look at the women in the center clapping, her face says it all. "Must clap harder or leader will do away with me." Someday these people are going to be free of oppression.

JonnieCache 13y ago
>Someday these people are going to be free of oppression. If only they had some natural resources, then the state of their government would be a massive moral issue for the world. Unfortunately until they strike oil they're just gonna have to rot.
- wil421 13y ago
  Yea its like nations say Russia cant take Crimea. Yet NK can slaughter and oppress an entire nation and no one flinches.
  - JonnieCache 13y ago
    To be fair, russia can take crimea because nobody can stop them. NK can oppress because nobody gives a shit. (Also IIRC china protects them in order to irritate the west and to use as a bargaining chip.)
    - wj 13y ago
      China also props them up to avoid the NK government collapsing thus sending millions of North Korean refugees across the border.
    - BugBrother 13y ago
      >> NK can oppress because nobody gives a shit. Am I missing something? Are you judging people morally for not doing the impossible? Or are you just generally outraged by dirty realpolitik? I just can't see a third alternative to these non-starters: - China could stop the regime, maybe even without a catastrophe. How would you motivate China to do that, when the West today is as dependent on China as China is on the West? - The military way to help the NK population would be an economic and humanitarian catastrophe, not only in NK. Edit: I could agree with that position on e.g. Zimbabwe, but NK seems carefully designed by the junta to keep them safe by using their own population as hostages (as long as China don't sell them down the river). Edit 2: A third possibility is to offer the junta a better deal than to control the lives of many millions of slaves. But they are obviously happy as it is.

Istof 13y ago

as long as it's free (no pun intended)

valarauca1 13y ago
Everything is free in The Democratic Republic of Korea. Glorious Eternal Leader pays for everything. This is why everyone votes for socialism every time. Free healthcare, food, education, transportation.
- Istof 13y ago
  even email is free over there
  - valarauca1 13y ago
    They even went and made it illegal to talk ill about the Eternal Glorious Leader, I mean how could speak ill of the creator of such a glorious socialist paradise?!

mavdi 13y ago

somebody blow up his little shitty head already

swayvil 13y ago

Excuse me but I find this haircut rather unattractive.. ONE MILLION YEARS DUNGEON!

nwh 13y ago

I don't follow the reasoning. It's a country that's stuck in a variety of awkward situations with its neighbours, isolated, famine stricken, and threatening to wage war on the South- yet they're worrying about the people having too much freedom with their 10 allowed haircuts? I can't begin to imagine what's going on in their minds. I suppose it could be a distraction from other issues, but restricting to 10 in itself seems almost unreal.

brown9-2 13y ago
You seem to be assuming that the country which has isolated itself so extremely is also led by rational people.
kjjw 13y ago
I think the point is that it doesn't matter what is going on in 'their' minds. All that matters is what is going on in the mind of one particular person.
- JanezStupar 13y ago
  Do you honestly believe a single person can produce that much insanity?
  - kjjw 13y ago
    In a round about way, I think so. Did he suggest this? Perhaps not. Is he responsible for the environment that created this decision? I think so.
    - JanezStupar 13y ago
      I think that he is as much of a hostage as he is a perpetrator.
snorkel 13y ago
Fashion conformity is another type of crowd control. Also makes it easier to spot troublemakers in a crowd.

aurumpotest 13y ago

What about bald men? Will they be punished for not being physically able to replicate the hairstyle? It's just mental. Thank god they're not doing the same thing with David Cameron...

snorkel 13y ago
Bald adults and infants will be issued wigs.

jwmoz 13y ago

To be honest, I think he's got a pretty good fade.

sharkweek 13y ago

Honest question - let's say at some point in the future North Korea sees their current regime fall and a more democratic or at least benevolent dictatorship takes over. What sort of mass psychological issues are we looking at here? I can only imagine how the minds of the current citizenship work, would it be nearly impossible for those raised only knowing what they know to recover from the previous trauma?

NotOscarWilde 13y ago
I believe people everywhere in the world are used to supressing the difference between the stated ideals of their land (equality, liberty, free elections) and the reality (prejudices, xenophobia, racism, assassinations ordered by the government, voter sway via public ads). If our minds can supress the differences between ideals and reality in USA, Russia, India, Pakistan, Japan or any other country of residence, I believe North Koreans can do the same -- focus on their daily life and ignore the atrocities. All of that is just my opinion, obviously. My family adapted fine after the fall of the Soviet Union, but that's just anecdotal.
- Touche 13y ago
  Bribery is still a major problem in Russia. It takes a long time for a population to adjust to things they are used to being part of every day life.
- sharkweek 13y ago
  Interesting - I am curious if that's common in North Korea. I can imagine there are a lot of under the radar rumblings about how things are supposed to be as opposed to how they are. Thus I could assuming that most obedience is fear based as opposed to actual loyalty.
S4M 13y ago
I think you should see how the difference of mentality clashed between East and West Germans after the reunification, and amplify that a bit. I suspect it would take one or two generations to close the gap between the two Koreas after the hypothetical reunification.

gadders 13y ago

I know people hate on StratFor (for no good reason IMO) but the below article from them is an interesting summary: http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/ferocious-weak-and-crazy-north-korean-strategy http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/ferocious-weak-and-crazy-nort... "When the Soviet Union collapsed, North Korea was left in dire economic straits. There were reasonable expectations that its government would soon collapse, leading to the unification of the Korean Peninsula. Naturally, the goal of the North Korean government was regime survival, so it was terrified that outside powers would invade or support an uprising against it. It needed a strategy that would dissuade anyone from trying that. Being weak in every sense, this wasn't going to be easy, but the North Koreans developed a strategy that we described more than 10 years ago as ferocious, weak and crazy. North Korea has pursued this course since the 1990s, and the latest manifestation of this strategy was on display last week. The strategy has worked marvelously and is still working." I guess the haircuts would be the "crazy" part of the strategy.

mukundmr 13y ago

What is the authentic source for this? BBC says "it is reported". Who reported it and where?

ginko 13y ago

Kinda seems like the queue order during the Qing dynasty in China. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queue_%28hairstyle%29#Queue_Order https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queue_%28hairstyle%29#Queue_Or...

andyjohnson0 13y ago

Related: Hair, beards and power - Taking it on the chin [1] [1] http://www.economist.com/node/16743613 http://www.economist.com/node/16743613

MarkTee 13y ago

Wow, in 2005 they produced a hidden-camera series that outed "long-haired" men, revealing their names and addresses on national TV. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4157121.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4157121.stm