North Korea has reportedly banned leather trench coats because its leader, Kim Jong-Un doesn’t want citizens dressing up like him.
The coat which he first wore in 2019 became popular among the North Korean elite who were keen to show their loyalty to the Supreme Leader and who could afford real leather.
But due to imitations of leather trench coats, fashion police have reportedly been deployed to shut down merchants selling them and take them off people amid fears it cheapens Kim’s look and undermines his authority.
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”Police say that wearing clothes designed to look like the Highest Dignity’s is an ‘impure trend to challenge the authority of the Highest Dignity. They instructed the public not to wear leather coats, because it is part of the party’s directive to decide who can wear them,” a source told Radio Free Asia.
The outlet said knock-off versions of the coat first began appearing in September this year when unofficial trade between China and North Korea was reopened following a shut-down during the COVID-19 pandemic.
That allowed traders to start acquiring synthetic leather to make the coats from.
Radio Free Asia claimed to have seen an import document from recent months that showed dozens of metres of the material being imported.
North Korea has reportedly banned leather trench coats because its leader, Kim Jong-Un doesn’t want citizens dressing up like him.
The coat which he first wore in 2019 became popular among the North Korean elite who were keen to show their loyalty to the Supreme Leader and who could afford real leather.
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But due to imitations of leather trench coats, fashion police have reportedly been deployed to shut down merchants selling them and take them off people amid fears it cheapens Kim’s look and undermines his authority.
”Police say that wearing clothes designed to look like the Highest Dignity’s is an ‘impure trend to challenge the authority of the Highest Dignity.
They instructed the public not to wear leather coats, because it is part of the party’s directive to decide who can wear them,” a source told Radio Free Asia.
The outlet said knock-off versions of the coat first began appearing in September this year when unofficial trade between China and North Korea was reopened following a shut-down during the COVID-19 pandemic.
That allowed traders to start acquiring synthetic leather to make the coats from.
Radio Free Asia claimed to have seen an import document from recent months that showed dozens of metres of the material being imported.
Kim first appeared in a leather coat in December 2019, around the time he was negotiating with Donald Trump over North Korea’s nuclear stockpile.
