Posted on 07/11/2007 6:58:13 PM PDT by indcons
SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea will close its karaoke bars in an attempt to stem foreign influences on the isolated communist country, a South Korean civic group said Wednesday.
Separately, the North's Ministry of People's Security conducted house-to-house overnight inspections near the Chinese border earlier this month to search for cell phones and illegal video CDs, the Good Friends aid agency said in a newsletter.
The ministry said in a directive last week that silencing the karaoke outlets was a "mopping-up operation to prevent the ideological and cultural permeation of anti-socialism," according to the aid group.
Violators were warned they would face punishment, including deportation to other North Korean regions.
The group, whose previous reports on the North's isolated regime have been reliable, did not say how it obtained the information. The number of North Korean karaoke bars was unclear.
Officials at South Korea's top spy agency, the National Intelligence Service, were not immediately available for comment.
South Korea's Dong-A Ilbo newspaper carried a similar report citing the directive.
The newspaper said that the North also ordered the shutdown of video screening rooms, while banning unauthorized computers and fax machines.
The North has cracked down on outside influences before. The regime has previously imposed restrictions on cell phones and South Korean pop culture.
Despite the crackdowns, some North Koreans use cell phones through Chinese communication networks. South Korean pop culture appears to be gaining popularity in the North through smuggled discs of South Korean TV dramas and movies, defectors say.
North Korea's state-run media frequently warn that imperialists are trying to poison the country's culture and ideals through a U.S. offensive to topple the communist regime. Washington denies the claim.
Dear leader is probably sick of hearing people singing....
“I’m so ronery.....so very ronery”......
Both of them?
Both of them?
I’m just wondering when the boiler will explode .....
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