New York Post
written by Bob Fredericks
Wednesday March 26, 2014
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery — and in Kim Jong Un’s North Korea, that’s now an order!
All North Korean men are now required to get the same haircut as their nutjob leader — shaved close on the back and sides, with longer hair on top brushed back off the forehead.
The state-ordered guidelines were introduced in the capital, Pyongyang, roughly two weeks ago, according to South Korean media.
And the rule is now being enforced nationwide.
But not all of the dictator’s subjects are impressed with the strongman’s inverted bowl-style ’do.
“Our leader’s haircut is very particular, if you will,” a source told Radio Free Asia.
“It doesn’t always go with everyone, since everyone has different face and head shapes.”
Meanwhile, a North Korean now living in China said the new haircut makes Koreans look like Chinese smugglers.
“Until the mid-2000s, we called it the ‘Chinese smuggler haircut,’” the Korea Times reported.
Until now, Korean men could take their pick of 10 state-approved styles.
Women will still enjoy far more freedom to wear their hair the way they want — with a list of 18 looks the communist government has deemed appropriate.
And it’s not the first time North Korea has ordered its citizens to clean up their act, the BBC reported.
North Korea’s state TV once launched a campaign against long hair, called “Let us trim our hair in accordance with the Socialist lifestyle.”
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BONUS
New York Post
written by Reuters staff
Monday March 17, 2014
China dismissed a UN report alleging North Korea has committed crimes against humanity on Monday, effectively confirming the fears of human rights advocates that Beijing will shield its ally Pyongyang from international prosecution.
The report, published in February, accused the reclusive country of killings and torture comparable to Nazi-era atrocities and said officials, possibly even Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un himself, should face the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Chen Chuandong, a counselor at China’s mission in Geneva, told the UN Human Rights Council that the independent commission of inquiry had made unfounded accusations and made recommendations that were “divorced from reality.”
“The inability of the commission to get support and cooperation from the country concerned makes it impossible for the commission to carry out its mandate in an impartial, objective and effective manner,” Chen said.
China, as a member of the UN Security Council, would have the power to veto any move to refer North Korea to the Hague-based ICC. Diplomats had already warned China was likely to object to the report, which also criticized Beijing for its treatment of North Korean defectors.
The chief author of the report, retired Australian judge Michael Kirby, had opened the debate by challenging the United Nations to act to stop crimes against humanity that ranked among the worst in modern history.
“Contending with the scourges of Nazism, apartheid, the Khmer Rouge and other affronts required courage by great nations and ordinary human beings alike,” Kirby said.
“It is now your solemn duty to address the scourge of human rights violations and crimes against humanity in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.”
Kirby said the team’s findings, based on testimony from hundreds of victims, defectors and witnesses, were unequivocal, and demanded closure of political prison camps believed to hold up to 120,000 people.
But Chen said the report was based on information and interviews collected outside the country, without firsthand information, he said. “The question then arises: Can such an inquiry be truly credible?”
North Korean Ambassador So Se Pyong reiterated Pyongyang’s rejection of the report, labeling it a ridiculous provocation and a fabrication instigated by the United States and other “hostile forces,” who he said should be investigated for their own human rights records.
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BONUS
New York Post
written by Bob Fredericks and Post Wire
February 26, 2014
Ahn Myong-Chol saw many nightmarish atrocities during his years as a prison guard – including one horrific incident in which ferocious dogs attacked and killed innocent school kids, according to a shocking new report.
“There were three dogs and they killed five children,” the 45-year-old Ahn told the French news agency AFP.
“They killed three of the children right away. The two other children were barely breathing and the guards buried them alive,” said Ahn, who worked in one of the communist country’s brutal prison camps for eight years before fleeing in 1994.
A day later, guards rewarded the murderous mutts with a special meal, “as some kind of award,” Ahn said.
“People in the camps are not treated as human beings. They are like flies that can be crushed,” said Ahn, speaking at a conference for human rights activists was under way in Geneva.
He was one of many North Koreans who had fled the hellish country and testified for a United Nations investigation that led to a stomach-churning 400-page report on rampant human rights abuses in North Korea.
Ahn first worked as a banker in South Korea after fleeing the North, but has since dedicated his life to exposing systematic atrocities perpetrated by the North Korean regime against its own people.
“It’s my life’s mission to spread awareness about what is happening in the camps,” said Ahn, who now heads up the human rights group Free NK Gulag.
The UN estimates there are as many as 120,000 political prisoners in North Korea.
Now married with two daughters, a guilt-wracked Ahn can’t shake his memories of the horrors he witnessed – telling AFP that guards are brainwashed so that they see all prisoners as subhuman and evil.
Guards were told to practice their martial arts skills on prisoners – and ordered to shoot to kill if anyone tried to bust out.
“We were allowed to kill them, and if we brought back their body, they would award us by letting us go study at college,” he said.
Ahn said he had beaten and abused many prisoners but claimed he never killed anyone.
He became disillusioned when he was assigned as a driver and travelled from camp to camp, which gave him a chance to talk to a number of prisoners.
“More than 90 percent” had no clue why they had been imprisoned, he said.
He learned first-hand that many prisoners were sent to the camps solely because a member of their family had committed a real or imagined offense.
While on leave the same year he fled, he found out his father had killed himself after he got drunk and criticized the government.
Ahn’s mother, sister and brother were taken away, never to be seen again.
He returned to his assignment at the camp, but grew fearful his own days were numbered.
So he drove his truck to the the Du Man River and swam to China, eventually making his way to South Korea, the news agency reported.
Ahn said the shocking UN report was vitally important because it opened the world’s eyes to the ongoing atrocities.
“The difference is that in North Korea we are still talking in the present tense. These horrors are still happening,” he said.
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