North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has banned singing and drinking: reports
North Korea has reportedly banned singing and drinking.
Its leader Kim Jong-un has cracked down on gatherings involving such festivities, media in South Korea have reported.
The move is a response to economic sanctions imposed on North Korea, South Korean news agency Yonhap said.
The sanctions are in place because of North Korea’s continued development of nuclear arms and ballistic missiles.
South Korean National Intelligence Service said Pyongyang "has banned any gatherings related to drinking, singing and other entertainment and is strengthening control of outside information".
The intelligence agency also reported that top North Korean officials were punished for ‘impure attitudes’ after an inspection of the military’s General Political Bureau.
South Korean intelligence said: "The agency is closely following the developments because there is a possibility that North Korea could fire an array of ballistic missiles this year under the name of a satellite launch and peaceful development of space."
Yonhap reported that North Korea "has devised a system whereby party organs report people’s economic hardships on a daily basis".
'Murderous Regime'
Meanwhile, Donald Trump has announced the US is putting North Korea’s ‘murderous regime’ on their list of state sponsors of terrorism.
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The US president said the designation was long overdue, and he promised a new wave of sanctions as part of a ‘maximum pressure campaign’ over the North’s development of nuclear weapons that could soon pose a direct threat to the US mainland.
North Korea will join Iran, Sudan and Syria on the blacklist.The North had been designated for two decades until 2008 when it was removed in a bid to salvage international talks aimed at halting its nuclear efforts.
The talks collapsed soon after and have not been revived since.
The primary impact of the designation may be to compound North Korea’s growing international isolation as it is already subject to an array of tough US sanctions restricting trade, foreign assistance, defence sales and exports of sensitive technology.
The step is likely to further sour relations between Washington and Pyongyang which turned uglier with name-calling between Mr Trump and Kim Jong-un.
