Seoul: North Korea has imposed a strict ban on laughing, drinking, and shopping for its citizens for a period of 11 days. The mourning period, which started on December 17, has been imposed in the country to mark the death anniversary of Kim Jong-il, the former leader of North Korea.
He was the father of North Korea’s current leader Kim Jong-Un. During the mourning period, citizens are prohibited from indulging in any sort of celebration and leisure activity as per a report by Radio Free Asia’s Korean Service.
During this period, if a resident breaks the rule, he or she can be arrested, the report added. In the past, residents who were found guilty of flouting the restrictions “were arrested and treated as ideological criminals.” The unnamed resident said, “They were taken away and never seen again.”
That’s not all. “People cannot even celebrate their own birthdays if they fall within the mourning period,” the unnamed resident was quoted as saying. In the event that there is a death in a household during the mourning period, bereaved family members are not allowed to cry out loud. The body, the report said, must be taken out after it’s over.
As per a report in Newsweek, citizens in the capital city of Pyongyang were made to bow their heads and observe three minutes of silence as a siren blared across the city in remembrance of Kim Jong-il on December 17. Additionally, cars, ships and trains all blew their horns on the occasion.
