North Korea’s security services have launched a harsh crackdown on women with ‘capitalist’ breast implants, according to sources.
Kim Jong Un’s regime is said to be using undercover agents and neighbourhood patrols to catch those carrying out and undergoing cosmetic procedures, who face being sent to labour camps.
In one case, a doctor who performed breast augmentation surgery was put on trial along with two women who underwent the illegal procedure, according to South Korean media outlet Daily NK.
The medical school dropout was said to be using silicone smuggled in from China in a procedure at his home when he was caught.
A source in southern North Hwanghae Province said: ‘In mid-September, at the cultural hall in the central district of Sariwon, a public trial was held for a doctor who had performed illegal breast surgery and for women who received the operations.’
Sign up for all of the latest stories
Start your day informed with Metro’s News Updates newsletter or get Breaking News alerts the moment it happens.
The trial is said to have caused a ‘stir’ as details of the trio’s backgrounds and how the investigation took place were laid out.
Medical tools, imported silicone and bundles of cash seized by the district’s Security Bureau were displayed as evidence.
The doctor is said to have stood on stage with his head bowed for the entire time, while the two women aged in their 20s could also not raise their faces. The women told the hearing they wanted to ‘improve their figure’ with the procedure, according to the report.
The prosecutor said: ‘Women living in a socialist system have been corrupted by bourgeois customs and have committed rotten capitalist acts.’ The judge was reported as promising ‘strict punishment’ after saying the trio had taken part in an ‘anti-socialist act’.
The trial also revealed that the Security Bureau had conducted physical examinations of women suspected of having had breast surgery, shocking many in the audience, according to NK.
Women will now be ‘intensively’ investigated to see if they have undergone cosmetic procedures, it was announced during the trial.
Neighbourhood watch leaders are to identify women whose bodies have noticeably changed and send them to hospitals for examinations to confirm whether surgery has been done, NK said.
Many women in their 20s in Sariwon are now reportedly living in fear that they may be subjected to checks if they come under suspicion.
The case followed an emergency crackdown by the Ministry of Social Security due to a rise in cosmetic procedures such as breast augmentation and double-eyelid surgery, NK said.
Illegal operations using contraband silicone carry risks of infection and other side effects.
The ministry released a directive that ‘women in the socialist system are being tainted by bourgeois ideology and are engaging in all kinds of decadent acts.’
The crackdown is said to involve undercover infiltration, with investigators posing as patients, and patrols with neighbourhood watch leaders.
The source told NK: ‘Strike teams have already been deployed in central districts of Pyongyang and are operating in plain clothes.
‘Women or doctors caught will face criminal punishment, including terms in labour training camps, on charges of anti-socialist behaviour.’
The North Korean regime exercises ‘total control’ over people’s everyday lives and severely restricts their freedom of expression, according to Amnesty International.