It wasn't enough for Kim Jong-un to ban North Korean citizens from indulging in K-Pop, haircuts and skinny jeans. The dictator has expanded his crackdowns, forbidding leather coats in a bid to stop his subjects from stealing his personal style — for real.
As laid out in a report by the admitted CIA propaganda mouthpiece Radio Free Asia (RFA), North Korean "sources" claim that Kim's regime is keeping ordinary citizens from wearing leather coats to imitate his own looks.
Why coats and not just jackets? Because Kim himself has been fond of a double-breasted leather trench since 2019.
Further leather-clad appearances from Kim and his sister, Kim Yo-Jong, solidified the layering piece's popularity amidst North Korean men and women, despite the imposing prices.
Reportedly, North Koreans will have to cough up ₩170,000 won (about $34), and ₩80k (about $16) for real and fake leather coats, respectively; RFA uses figures from South Korean paper Korea Joongang Daily that estimate a North Korean citizen's average monthly income to be ₩4,000 ($0.66) which doesn't quite add up to comparable figures from other outlets but, hey, this is the CIA we're dealing with here after all.
Anyways, though leather coats are very much a splurge, they've been en vogue within North Korea since the early 2000s.
Kim's latest dictum has apparently spurred spontaneous disrobings from Pyongsong police, who strip citizens of their hard-won leathers in the street.
In response to people complaining about the loss of their expensive outerwear, North Korean police said that "wearing clothes designed to look like the Highest Dignity's is an 'impure trend to challenge the authority of the Highest Dignity,'" according to an anonymous source.
The police then "instructed the public not to wear leather coats, because it is part of the party’s directive to decide who can wear them."
Basically, as social media users have been saying, Kim is simply trying to keep people from stealing "his drip."
And, like all reports issued by Western intelligence to make political rivals look bad, let's consider that this news could very well just be a total fabrication.
