LOS ANGELES—North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has signaled a new crackdown on sexuality in the reclusive country, blaming “decadent capitalist influences” for what he said was an increase in “immoral” sexual promiscuity, especially among the country’s high school students, according to a report by Radio Free Asia, a non-profit broadcaster and news outlet that receives funding from the U.S. government.
Those “decadent” influences include porn smuggled from China and Japan, as well as mainstream movies that enter the country from South Korea and the U.S., over the border between China and North Korea, according to the RFA report.
The outlet also reported that several North Korean defectors have described a school system in which sex education simply does not exist, and where the smuggled foreign films and porn serve as the only exposure young North Koreans have to any information about sexuality at all.
In an effort to crack down on “immoral sexual behavior of students,” the Central Committee of the ruling Korean Workers Party has now defined “sexual promiscuity among teenagers as a treasonous act that helps the enemy to destroy our society,” according to a source who spoke to RFA.
“And since they are warning of strong punishment, students are shaking with fear,” the source said.
But what, exactly, that “strong punishment” would be was not made clear.
Kim recently emerged from a mysterious disappearance in which he was widely believed to be quarantining to protect himself against a potential coronavirus infection. While the North Korean state-run press agency did not acknowledge a reason for Kim’s seclusion, it did issue a report denying a rumor that the leader had mastered “chukjibeop,” which is believed to be the ability to travel through time by warping the fabric of space.
“In realistic terms, a person cannot suddenly disappear and reappear by folding space,” the government-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper reported.
But a report by Britain’s Sun tabloid said that “foreign intelligence services think he's actually sheltering from the coronavirus pandemic in a secure luxury compound,” and that with him in the palatial retreat was a “2000-strong harem” used by Kim for “bizarre sexual games and orgies.”
Photo by the White House / Wikimedia Commons Public Domain
