North Korea: Male University Students Required To Get Kim Jong-un Haircuts

An anonymous reader writes in with one more reason not to accept that full-ride scholarship to a North Korea University. "Male university students in North Korea are now required to get the same haircut as their leader Kim Jong-un, it is reported. The state-sanctioned guideline was introduced in the capital Pyongyang about two weeks ago, Radio Free Asia reports. It is now being rolled out across the country - although some people have expressed reservations about getting the look. 'Our leader's haircut is very particular, if you will,' one source tells Radio Free Asia. 'It doesn't always go with everyone since everyone has different face and head shapes.' Meanwhile, a North Korean now living in China says the look is actually unpopular at home because people think it resembles Chinese smugglers. 'Until the mid-2000s, we called it the "Chinese smuggler haircut",' the Korea Times reports."

Comments

Debunked.

[oneiros27]

The good news about being late to post stories (that aren't for nerds and don't matter), is that they've already been debunked:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com...

Re:Debunked.

[desertfool]

Kind of sad what Slashdot has become. When CNN is already reporting this as a fake, for it to appear here is a joke.

Re:Debunked.

[LordLucless]

That article's a strawman - it's debunking a claim that nobody made.

North Korea has a restricted number of haircuts that barbers are allowed to perform - 10 for men, and 18 for women. That's not in doubt, that article even referenced the fact.

The new claim was that the number of allowed haircuts for men was being reduced to 1. That doesn't mean the everyone in the country had to rush out and get their hair cut, it means that the next time they get their haircut, they will be forced to take a Kim Jong-un cut.

So the fact that a bunch of visitors haven't seen a sudden growth in Jong-un-style haircuts neither proves nor disproves the original claim.

Re:Debunked.

[Anonymous Coward]

That's not in doubt, that article even referenced the fact.

Yeah it references it by saying:

And photos of suggested hairstyles posted outside women’s hair salons — the kind of photos a customer points at to speed up the explanation process — are regularly depicted by foreign media as showing the only sanctioned styles North Korean women can choose from.

Not true. But don’t tell that to the Internet.

Emphasis added.

Getting back at us?

[beernutmark]

I think it's just North Korea getting back at us for all The Onion stories they have fallen for.

Re:Haircuts are cheap

[Anonymous Coward]

You do know that an insurance policy is just a policy. The same thing applies to anyone buying it. You could just as truthfully say that women's health insurance covers testicular cancer.

It's not like insurance policies just changed this year to include it. They've been like that for years. You'd know that if you had ever read your policy.

Re:Haircuts are cheap

[whistlingtony]

Meanwhile, women have been buying health insurance that covers testicular cancer the whole time. Stuff a sock in it... This is how insurance works. We pool everyone. You're not buying specific health procedures. You're buying decreased risk. That's how insurance works. You got lumped into a pool that includes women.

If you only want to pay for SPECIFICALLY what you get sick for, we call that self insured. We also call that Not Insured.

I'm getting really sick of this stupid !@#$ing meme and the stupid !@#$ers that keep repeating it.

Debunked and Disappointed

[PopeRatzo]

Too bad it's not true, because chicks dig that haircut.

I understand Jong-un is a real pussy magnet. At least that's what Dennis Rodman says.

Re:Hoax

[Opportunist]

But a good one, it was not SO far out that it was easily debunked.

Then again, creating a believable hoax around NK is like shooting fish in a barrel.