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From Our Own Correspondent: North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un cracks down on foreign influence

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North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un cracks down on foreign influence

12/06/2021 GMT

BBC World Service - From Our Own Correspondent, North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un cracks down on foreign influence

The “Hermit Kingdom” leader takes draconian measures to keep the outside world at bay

Having an unusual haircut or using South Korean slang: both can now earn North Koreans a prison sentence, with particularly severe punishment for watching foreign movies.

Stories from North Korea, Turkey, Armenia and the Czech Republic.

Foreign-style clothes are out, so too are unusual haircuts. Using South Korean slang is forbidden, and as for watching a western film – that can get you executed. North Korea has long been a highly repressive society, but there’s recently been a particularly severe crackdown on any kind of influence from outside the country. The BBC’s Laura Bicker tells us about this latest development, and the people it affects.

A thick white foam has been causing havoc to Turkey’s coastline. Technically, it’s known as “marine mucilage,” an algae growing out of control because of pollution or climate change. But the mucilage has more commonly been dubbed “sea snot,” and it’s devastating marine life. The BBC’s Neyran Elden went scuba-diving below the surface of the affected waters to see the damage for herself.

Armenia claims that two hundred of its people are still being held as prisoners of war in neighbouring Azerbaijan. The two countries fought a war last year, over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh – a war which only came to an end with a Russian-brokered truce. For its part, Azerbaijan insists it’s only holding a few dozen Armenians, all of them classified as terrorists.  But now, Armenia’s Prime Minister has made a remarkable suggestion: he will offer up his own son, he says, in exchange for the prisoners. Rayhan Demytrie has met some of people still waiting for their loved ones to come home. 

Women in the Czech Republic may soon be able to take non-gendered versions of their surnames, after MPs backed a change in the law. By the traditional rules of Czech grammar, the ending -ová is added automatically to almost all female surnames, and can only be dropped in very limited circumstances. It’s been this way for centuries. But as the BBC’s Rob Cameron explains, change is on the way.

(Image: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Credit: North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) via Reuters)

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