North Korea opposes menace of long hair

Published on Monday 10 January 2005 00:42

NORTH Korea has launched an intensive media assault on its latest enemy - long hair.

A campaign exhorting men to get a short-back-and-sides has been aired by state-run television.

The series is entitled Let us Trim our Hair in Accordance with Socialist Lifestyle.

While the campaign has been carried out primarily on television, reports have appeared in North Korean press and radio, urging tidy hairstyles and proper attire.

It is the strongest media campaign against men’s sloppy appearances mounted in the reclusive and impoverished communist state.

The propaganda drive on grooming standards has gone a stage further than previous attempts. This time television identifies specific individuals deemed too shoddy.

It stressed the "negative effects" of long hair on "human intelligence development", noting that long hair "consumes a great deal of nutrition" and could thus rob the brain of energy.