In a striking display of North Korea’s ongoing battle against Western influences, the regime of Kim Jong Un has unleashed a sweeping crackdown on women seeking breast enhancement surgeries, branding the procedures as “anti-socialist” and “bourgeois.” The campaign, which intensified through the summer of 2025 and culminated in high-profile public trials by September, has left many North Korean women—especially those in their 20s and 30s—living in fear of exposure, physical examination, and harsh punishment.
According to reports compiled by Metro, Daily NK, and other international and South Korean media outlets, the Ministry of Public Safety in Pyongyang issued emergency orders targeting what the regime calls “rotten capitalist” cosmetic surgeries. The orders have mobilized neighborhood patrols, secret services, and undercover agents, all tasked with rooting out both the women who undergo these procedures and the doctors who perform them. The city of Sariwon, a mere 75 kilometers from the capital, has become a focal point for these efforts, deploying strike teams to eliminate what officials label as “decadent acts.”
The crackdown reached a dramatic apex in mid-September 2025, when a public trial was staged at the cultural hall in Sariwon’s central district. There, a doctor—reportedly a medical school dropout who had turned to the lucrative but illegal world of underground plastic surgery—stood trial alongside two women in their 20s accused of receiving breast implants. All three kept their heads bowed throughout the proceedings, a gesture of shame and fear that resonated with the hushed crowd.
“Women living in a socialist system have been corrupted by bourgeois customs and have committed rotten capitalist acts,” the prosecutor declared, as quoted by Metro and Hindustan Times. The prosecution’s case was bolstered by a display of seized evidence: smuggled silicone implants (reportedly imported from China), surgical tools, and bundles of cash, all presented by the North Hwanghae Province Security Bureau. The women, when given a chance to speak, reportedly said they wanted to “improve their figures”—a justification the judge dismissed outright.
“She had no intention of being loyal to the organization and group, but was obsessed with vanity and ended up becoming a poisonous weed that was eating away at the socialist system,” the judge said of one defendant, according to The Sun. The verdict was clear: the acts were not only illegal but a direct threat to the ideological purity of the state. The judge promised “strict punishment,” with the ever-present specter of labor camp sentences looming for those found guilty. Some reports indicated that women or private doctors caught could face criminal punishment, including being sent to labor camps on charges of anti-socialism.
This public shaming was not an isolated incident. The government’s campaign has included deploying female undercover agents, who have reportedly caught doctors and patients in the act, and sending women suspected of having undergone surgery to hospitals for physical examinations. Communist Party members in Sariwon and elsewhere have been ordered to conduct such checks, with neighborhood watch leaders tasked to identify women whose bodies have changed noticeably. As one source told Daily NK, “Women with noticeably changed bodies are taken to hospitals for further examination.”
The crackdown is part of a broader state effort to quash what the regime sees as creeping capitalist values. The North Korean government contends that the recent demand for breast augmentation, eyelid surgeries, and eyebrow tattoos among young women is a result of “bourgeois ideology” infiltrating the country. “Women or private doctors caught could face criminal punishment, including being sent to labor camps, on charges of anti-socialism,” one anonymous source revealed to Metro.
Public sentiment, however, appears divided. While some residents watching the trial reportedly criticized doctors for “doing all kinds of things for money,” others expressed sympathy, pointing out the dire economic circumstances that push medical professionals into the underground cosmetic surgery market. “Isn’t he doing such things because he has no way to make a living?” one observer was quoted as saying by The Sun.
Despite the government’s best efforts, underground cosmetic procedures have surged in popularity in recent years, especially among women in their 20s and 30s. The authorities’ response has been to double down: in July 2025, for example, an oral surgeon was arrested for botching two breast implant surgeries, and a dedicated task force was established to “eradicate anti-socialist acts” like breast enhancement. The Ministry of Public Safety’s emergency crackdown order, issued on September 13, 2025, specifically instructed the Pyongyang City Public Security Department to step up surveillance and enforcement.
Those who perform or undergo these procedures face a daunting array of risks—not just legal and social, but physical as well. The use of smuggled silicone and makeshift surgical tools, often in unsanitary home settings, adds a layer of medical danger to the already fraught landscape. Yet, the desire for cosmetic enhancement persists, driven by a mix of personal aspiration and the subtle, growing influence of outside cultural norms.
International human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, have long criticized North Korea for its “complete control” over citizens’ daily lives and its severe restrictions on freedom of expression. The current campaign against breast implants is, in many ways, a microcosm of the state’s broader efforts to police not just behavior, but thought—and, increasingly, appearance.
The climate of fear is palpable in places like Sariwon, where many young women now live in constant anxiety that they may be subjected to intrusive checks and public humiliation. The message from the regime is unequivocal: cosmetic surgery is not just a personal choice, but a political act—one that, if discovered, will be met with the full force of the state’s repressive machinery.
As North Korea continues its campaign against what it calls “decadent” and “capitalist” customs, the fate of those caught in its crosshairs—doctors and patients alike—serves as a stark reminder of the regime’s enduring grip over even the most intimate aspects of its citizens’ lives.
