Read down for interesting tidbit.
A recently-announced campaign by North Korea's state-controlled media to promote the benefits of shorter hairstyles may be the latest indicator of a significant power struggle between Kim Jong-Il and competing government officials. The campaign, running extensively on North Korean state television over the last few months exhorts the 'mental benefits; of short haircuts, particularly amongst men. According to the a January 8, 2005 report on the BBC's website, the campaign stresses the "negative effects" of long hair on "human intelligence," reasoning that both the brain and hair draw from the same nutritional sources and by reducing the amount of hair, North Koreans can increase their intellectual capacity. At the 2nd World Congress of Korean Studies held at the PeopleÕs Palace of Culture, August 4 and 5, 2004, in Pyongyang, only the portrait of the late President Kim Il Sung is hung on the wall incontravention of past policy. At first glance, this may appear to be just another eccentricity in a nation known for its bizarre and sometimes outrageous displays of 'national pride' and the 'socialist ideal,' but the ramifications are likely to run far deeper than simply promoting a uniform appearance for North Korean men: it appears to be an attack against Kim Jong-Il. Shorter than most Koreans, Kim has typically worn lifts in his shoes and sported an odd-looking bouffant hairstyle aimed at giving him a notionally larger physical appearance. With an official proclamation that equates long hair with relatively-low mental capacity, Kim's government has essentially forced the highly-vain dictator to reduce his apparent stature, or risk public doubts about his intelligence. In a state as tightly-controlled as North Korea, such embarrassments would not be promulgated by the official media, if Kim Jong Il was firmly in control.
Doubts about Kim Jong-Il's grip on power have been on the rise since a massive explosion took place in the small town of Ryongchon, shortly after Kim rode through, returning from a state visit to Beijing on April 22, 2004. While the official North Korean explanation for the massive explosion, which leveled seven square miles of the town and injured thousands, was a train accident that took place hours after Kim Jong-Il passed through, based on the fact that many of those injured and killed were facing the same way and that optical injuries represented a large proportion of those treated, it is possible that the explosion occurred much closer to the time of Kim's arrival and may have been an assassination attempt.
Verrrrrry interesting!