North Korea has reportedly banned people from wearing leather coats to stop people from copying Kim Jong-un’s style. It was worn by the leader in December 2019 and since then has become popular among the elite class to show their loyalty and support towards the Supreme Leader.
However, knock-offs and fake leather jackets are doing the rounds of the market and fashion police have been deployed to prevent that. They are also cracking down on merchants who are selling them amid fears that it cheapens Kim’s look and undermines his authority. According to Radio Free Asia, the police said that wearing clothes designed to look like the Highest Dignity is an impure trend to challenge the authority of the Highest Dignity.
Reports say that young men have been protesting the move, stating that there was no reason to take away the clothing items that they bought with their own money. A resident of North Pyongan told Radio Free Asia that even though the leather trench coat was a recent trend, leather jackets had been worn by North Koreans since the early 2000s when they were popularised by South Korean actor Jang Dong-gun.
Kim Jong Un recently also asked the people of North Korea to eat less till 2025, citing the food shortage in the nation. Since the advent of the pandemic, North Korea closed its national boundaries for the supplies of goods from China.
Moreover, the stringent sanctions on this East-Asian country, aimed at controlling the nuclear and weapon programme, also contributed to the food resources running dry. Officials are christening the foreseen period of famine as ‘Arduous March,’ a term that finds its roots in the famine that hit North Korea after the fall of the Soviet Union, taking as many as 3 million lives.
