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North Korea publicly tries, humiliates women for illegal breast implants

Published: 30 Sep. 2025, 17:01

Hundreds of people are seen seated for a public trial at an open-air theater in North Korea in this image captured from KBS footage. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

North Korean authorities reportedly held a public trial for two women accused of undergoing illegal breast augmentation and the doctor who performed the surgeries.

The two women were "brought to a public trial at a cultural hall in central Sariwon" in mid-September, specialist media outlet Daily NK reported Thursday, citing a source in North Hwanghae Province.

The man who performed the surgeries and the two women who received them were brought before a crowd of residents. On display at the trial were surgical tools, imported silicone implants and bundles of cash as evidence.

The man, identified as a medical school dropout who once majored in surgery, allegedly performed the operations at private homes using silicone smuggled from China.

Local security officials reportedly launched a crackdown on illegal cosmetic procedures under central government orders, leading to the arrests after an undercover investigation.

During the trial, the two women said they underwent the surgeries because they wanted to improve their appearance.

The prosecutor accused them of adopting “bourgeois customs and rotten capitalist behavior unfit for women living under socialism.”

The judge said they were “driven by vanity and became poisonous weeds corroding the socialist system.”

The court session reportedly included a public examination of the women’s bodies, leaving spectators shocked.

The source told Daily NK that “the women were humiliated and could not lift their heads.” Following the trial, provincial state security officers are said to have begun medical checks on other women suspected of having cosmetic surgery.

In North Korea, public trials often serve as tools for political propaganda and social control rather than purely judicial proceedings. They are designed to instill fear among residents and label targeted behaviors as “antisocialist.”

The United Nations has raised concerns about such practices. In a report submitted to the 58th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Elizabeth Salmón, the UN special rapporteur on North Korean human rights, said the country’s human rights situation has worsened over the past year.

The report noted a resurgence of public trials and executions and cited cases in which women repatriated from China were executed shortly after being tried in public.

International observers criticized the latest case as an example of North Korea using women’s bodies and private lives as instruments of state control.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY BAE JAE-SUNG [[email protected]]