in Korea North, Carrying a bag with a shoulder strap may get its owner into trouble, because carrying the bag in this way is similar to what the capitalist West does.
National patrols in North Korea intercept citizens who carry bags slung over one shoulder, because this method is not socialist.
Anyone carrying a bag over their shoulder, whether on their way to school or work, is stopped and lectured against copying South Korea’s capitalist customs.
Radio Free Asia, citing sources inside the country, reported that violators had their bags confiscated or even expelled from schools in some cases, and said that in extreme cases, violating bag carriers were punished with shifts in labor camps.
Also Read: Etihad Airways carried 1.4 crore passengers last year
North Korean citizens are told that the proper way to carry a bag is the socialist way: wearing it on the back with straps over the shoulders or holding it in one hand.
One city resident told Radio Free Asia that university students “prefer to wear shoulder bags with long straps on their sides because they often watch South Korean TV shows and are influenced by TV dramas and movies smuggled to the North.”
The source added that during the opening ceremony of the teacher training college in Pyeongsong, officials announced that anyone carrying a bag over one shoulder would be punished “for spreading South Korean culture.”
Shoulder bags have joined a growing list of behaviors deemed contrary to the country’s socialist principles, with numerous reports emerging from the North in recent years of people wearing clothes different from the baggy suit worn by former North Korean leader Mao or having an unconventional hairstyle.
It was also declared that having a dog in the home was incompatible with the principles of the nation, while wedding feasts were also described as a symptom of capitalism.
