As growing numbers of North Koreans become curious about breast augmentation surgery, the regime is seeking to quash the practice by holding public trials for both practitioners and patients.
“A public trial was held at a culture center in downtown Sariwon in mid-September for a doctor who performed illegal breast augmentation and two women who received the procedure,” a source in North Hwanghae province told Daily NK recently.
The backgrounds of the doctor and the two women, as well as the circumstances of their arrest, were described in detail during the trial, which reportedly created a stir among attendees.
The doctor had been caught performing the procedure at home using silicone imported from China, despite having little medical experience and dropping out of medical school before completing his surgery program.
After receiving orders from the Central Committee to stay vigilant for illegal plastic surgery, Sariwon police surveyed neighborhood watch units about the practice. A police officer then posed as an interested patient, infiltrated the home of a doctor rumored to be performing plastic surgery, and caught him in the act.
Prosecutors presented evidence acquired by police, including wads of cash, imported silicone implants, and medical equipment used by the doctor in the illegal procedures.
Public shaming and warnings
Throughout the proceedings, the doctor stood on stage with his head lowered, while the two women in their twenties standing beside him were too ashamed to raise their eyes.
When the two women confessed during the trial to receiving the procedure because they wanted a better figure, the prosecutor railed against “women under a socialist system who have been corrupted by bourgeois customs and engaged in degenerate capitalist practices.”
The judge also condemned breast augmentation surgery as “non-socialist behavior” and warned that the women would face severe punishment. “Instead of being faithful to their groups and organizations, these women were consumed with vanity and ultimately became toxic influences eroding our socialist system,” the judge said.
During the trial, police reportedly patted down the accused women to confirm they had actually undergone breast augmentation, much to the shock of onlookers.
Police announced during the trial that women suspected of having had plastic surgery will have to undergo physical exams. Neighborhood watch unit leaders are supposed to escort any women with noticeably changed figures to a doctor to determine whether they have gone under the knife.
Women in their twenties in Sariwon are anxious that they will come under suspicion and be forced to undergo physical exams.
“Some people at the trial joined the chorus of criticism, commenting that doctors will do anything to make a buck. But others were more sympathetic and suggested that the doctor had entered that line of work because he was struggling to make a living,” the source said.
