Mick Hartley

From the Daily NK:

South Korea’s unique custom of couples and friends exchanging pairs of stick-shaped snacks on Nov. 11 has arrived in Pyongyang. Aware of this, the Pyongyang branch of the Socialist Patriotic Youth League issued an order ahead of so-called Pepero Day—as the Nov. 11 “holiday” is called in South Korea—urging young people to be on guard and highlighting the need to prevent “capitalist ideological infiltrations.”

According to a Daily NK source in Pyongyang, the Pyongyang branch of the Socialist Patriotic Youth League issued an order to schools calling for people to be “thoroughly on guard against decadent capitalist ideas like Pepero Day permeating among young people.”…

The order the city branch of the Socialist Patriotic Youth League sent to the league’s school organizations and Korean Children’s Union branches said that the practice “was an ideological problem that harmed socialist ethics and spirit,” warning that “if we let Pyongyang’s future generations become imbued with decadent capitalist customs, it could lead to the collapse of our ideological stronghold.”

When the only permitted culture involves worship of the Kim dynasty, any slight break, however trivial, comes as a welcome change. Which is why any cultural movement not involving Kim worship is swiftly denounced as capitalist decadence, and forbidden. “It could lead to the collapse of our ideological stronghold”.

Schools held emergency struggle sessions after the order was issued, but students instead shared plans to enjoy Pepero Day in secret, counseling one another to “simply secretly exchange gifts between ourselves” or to “avoid bringing gifts to school.”