North Korea is said to have recently put a doctor who performed illegal breast augmentation surgeries and the women who underwent the procedures on public trial.
According to the North Korea–focused outlet Daily NK on the 25th, a source in North Hwanghae Province said, "In mid-September in Sariwon, a public trial was held for the person who performed illegal breast augmentation surgery and the women who received the procedures."
According to the source, one doctor who performed the surgeries and two women who underwent them were dragged out. The Sariwon city public security department displayed evidence at the trial, including the medical instruments the doctor used for the surgeries, imported silicone, and bundles of cash. The doctor, brought onto the stage, stood with head bowed throughout the trial, and the two women in their 20s who were brought out with the doctor reportedly could not raise their faces out of shame.
The doctor reportedly dropped out while majoring in surgery at a medical college and lacked experience, yet imported silicone from China and was caught performing illegal breast augmentation surgeries at home.
At the trial, the two women who underwent the surgeries testified to the effect that "we got breast augmentation because we wanted to improve our figures," and the prosecutor rebuked them, saying, "Women living under the socialist system have been tainted by bourgeois customs and engaged in rotten capitalist conduct."
The judge also said, "Instead of thinking to be loyal to the organization and the collective, you were consumed by vanity and ultimately became a poisonous weed that eats away at the socialist system," defining breast augmentation surgery as "anti-socialist behavior."
The outlet reported that during the trial, a statement surfaced that the city public security department had conducted public physical examinations to verify whether women suspected of receiving illegal breast augmentation surgeries had in fact undergone the procedures, shocking the residents watching.
Meanwhile, the city public security department is said to have announced a plan to use this public trial as an opportunity to intensively examine women suspected of having cosmetic surgery. If inminban leaders root out women whose body shapes have noticeably changed, they will take them to hospitals for examinations to verify whether surgeries actually took place. As a result, women in their 20s in Sariwon are reportedly tense, worried they may fall under suspicion and be made to undergo examinations.
The source said, "Residents who attended this trial voiced criticism such as 'the doctor will do anything for money,' while also expressing sympathy, saying, 'Aren't they driven into such things because all ways to make a living are blocked?'"