North Koreans will now have to copy Kim Jong-un’s ‘ambitious’ hairstyle

Kim Jong-un, Supreme Leader of North Korea. (Source: AP)

The supreme leader of North Korea Kim Jong-un is reportedly ordering men to wear their hair just like himself and women to keep a bobbed cut similar to his wife. If anyone failed to comply with the order, they will have to face the officials’ “tonsorial diktat”.

Sources in Pyongyang were quoted in South Korea’s national daily Chosun Ilbo as saying that the authorities in North Korea issued an order asking men to keep their hair no longer than 2cm. “University student monitors are walking around with scissors and cutting off the hair of offenders,” the source told Chosun Ilbo. Reportedly, barber shops in North Korea are queued up because people do not want to face the wrath of the authorities.

In North Korea, his much-talked-about hairstyle is called ‘ambitious’ for its bold look with sides above ears and back of the head completely shaven and only top left. His wife Ri Sol-ju’s bob cut must be followed by young girls and cut their hair short in case they have longer tresses.

However, performers are an exception.

“The crackdown on long hair seems aimed at getting young people in shape for the seventh general assembly of the Workers Party,” a think-tank researcher is quoted as saying.