North Korea's CRAZIEST Laws

of all the countries in the world the Democratic People's Republic of Korea more commonly known as North Korea might just be the most mysterious nicknamed The Hermit Kingdom it's famous for its isolation and Independence but also for its shocking lack of Human Rights because it exists under the iron fisted rule of a dictatorship headed by supreme leader Kim Jong-un its laws are some of the most extreme in the world so with that in mind let's expose some of the craziest laws that have ever been enforced here that we know [Music] of you snooze you lose

now we've all fallen asleep and we've not meant to maybe it was in a zoom meeting or on a school desk and while you might expect some sort of punishment you never expect capital punishment for it well you would in North Korea in 2015 Minister of Defense hungy chol was reportedly ordered to be uh dispatched for napping during military rallies Kim Jong-un had him removed from his post immediately and the sentence was carried out in public to send a message that laziness and insubordination will not be tolerated to everyone in the country the crazy thing

is this isn't the only time it's happened just one year later in 2016 North Korean education Minister Kim Young Jinn was dispatched in front of hundreds of people for having bad posture during a party rally the supreme leader was so displeased with his poor posture kimyong Jin was interrogated before being labeled an anti-arty anti-revolutionary agitator and sentenced to Capital Punishment now that's one heck of a rude awakening Ticket to Ride bicycles are an essential train transport option for many people that live or work in busy cities yet in North Korea bicycles were actually banned in

the streets of its capital city pongyang unlike neighboring China which over the last century saw a natural progression from walking to cycling to motorize Transportation North Korea wanted to FastTrack this progression how by Banning bikes and insisting its citizens rely on Motor Vehicles to get around this might have worked if there economy hadn't completely tanked in 1991 leaving most North Koreans too poor to afford enough to eat let alone a car as such in 1992 Beany Yang's bicycle ban was lifted but even now most of its citizens remain too poor to afford a car so

it's mainly bikes that are used on the empty roads after this you'd expect transport options would have improved but sadly not from 1995 the state decided to ban women from owning and riding bicycles the regime's reasoning for the ban was that the sight of an attractive woman on a bike was deemed too suggestive and would damage public morality she's just riding a bike well that says a lot more about the ruling party being perverts than anything else they also argued women were genetically incapable of handling traffic making them a danger to others okay North Korea

it's time to sit down shut up and pay attention for a Hot Minute Men are universally responsible for more traffic related accidents and fatalities than women in 2021 in the us alone women were responsible for around 6,000 fatal crashes that number was three and A2 Times Higher at more than 21,000 for men so your genetically incapable argument just drove itself into a wall anyway the ban was briefly lifted in 2012 but then reinstated in early 2013 today the rule is flexible thanks to the lack of motorized public transportation in the country's main cities but we

can't say as much for the state of women's rights in the country speaking of which dress dictatorship I don't know about you but I live in my jeans I couldn't imagine not being able to wear them they're a closet staple now what if I told you they were completely banned in North Korea since mid 2020 Kim Jong-un has announced a Crackdown on Western influences including all styles of genes but why well this stems all the way back to the division of Korea in 1945 where South Korea backed by capitalist America fought the north backed by

the communist Soviet Union for control over the country ever since the division citizens in the north have been taught to view American American capitalism and The Wider Western world as the enemy along with all their influences and values it doesn't just stop it jeans though unless you have a work uniform women are technically not allowed to wear trousers in North Korea at all the law is still enforceable to this day but it's hard to enforce on a nation of 26 million people if women are caught wearing them a patriotic Youth League member can and will

interrogate the individual and force her to write a letter confessing to the crime they even have the power to access government controlled loudspeakers releasing the woman's name home address and place of work to the public if you can get doxed just for wearing trousers imagine the sentence they'd pass down for what Tik Tok influencers think are trendy these days well between Banning bikes and banning jeans which rule do you think is the most ridiculous for bikes hit that like button and for jeans hit that sub subscribe button all done all right what's next bad hair

day in the west hair is often used to express your individuality some of us choose to have a spiky Mohawk or bright blue hair even the mullet is back in fashion never thought I'd see the day but in North Korea extreme hairstyles are heavily discouraged it's likely you'd find yourself stopped by the pathetic sorry patriotic Youth League again and then forced to remove or cut your chosen style in 2013 the state released a guide of 28 approved hairstyles 10 for men 18 for women although there are a few more styles to choose from nowadays it's

still forbidden for men to have hair longer than 2 in and you're only permitted to grow it as long as three if you're over 60 years old how generous of them as a result young men are required to cut their hair every 15 days before it grows out for women having short hair is allowed when you're married with long hair and curled styles that look similar to those worn in the West in the 1980s allowed when you're young and single better than the Kim Jong uncut I guess no kimations with 8 billion people on the

planet there's bound to be someone out there who has the same name as you but Kim Jong-un decided Ed that his name should be unique and now all North Koreans are prohibited from sharing it that's right everyone called Jong Un was forced to completely change their name in 2011 the year he became the supreme leader he's also recently extended this rule to include his daughter's name Kim jouer who at this point appears to be his successor while there is no exact number on the amount of people who had to rename themselves Jong-un was an extremely

common name amongst North Koreans so basically he made himself the one Kim Jong-un to rule them all man I wouldn't be surprised if there were a couple of Hobbits out there trying to take this dictator down cell youur offence thanks to the advancement of cell phone technology you can call just about anyone anywhere in the world unless they're in North Korea as standard the country's popular domestic mobile phone service corol link blocks all international calls signal Jammers are used at the country's borders and just about all electronic communications are monitored while it's estimated that some

80% of North Korean households own at least one mobile phone making so much as one international call can warrant a death sentence but why well North Korea's government specifically censors and prohibits the spread of information so that outside influences don't get in and Vital Information can't get out as such any form of International Communication without specific government authorization is forbidden the fear is that contact with people from the outside may prompt citizens to realize how harsh the regime is undoing the Decades of brainwashing from propaganda they've been fed on a daily basis and subsequently their

citizens will either try to flee or rise up against the government and mass back in 2014 a man used a smuggled phone and SIM card to make several international calls and was dispatched for contacting his family who defected to South Korea he sadly didn't have enough time to hide the phone before officials locked onto his signal and came knocking on his door his demise was used to make a very public example of those who break the rules in the worst way possible regime real estate a lot of us dream of being able to buy a

house one day having your own place is considered by most a basic necessity but not so in North Korea like so much else here the government controls all property in the country all buildings are technically owned by the state and citizens are assigned to their housing by them too it's even harder to make a life for yourself in a big city North Koreans have to be granted permission to live in the country's capital pongyang it's also Al illegal to lease or trade your home but since 2000 North Koreans have utilized a clever loophole in the

system while they don't have property rights they do have residency rights this is confirmed by a certificate known as ipsa Jun a document proving the person lives in a specific Place North Koreans have been issuing new certificates under other names and cancelling older ones thereby passing on the ownership to another person but because it skirts the law Citizens need enough money to bribe City officials into looking the other way a back of cigarettes or a good bottle of liquor apparently does the trick in cash you may be expected to pay as little as $50 to

$100 to secure the exchange I mean if you're going to limit people's freedom as harshly as this you got to expect the people to fight back in some way joyless July of all the totally unhinged laws enforced by the North Korean government this next one might be the most insane Kim Jong-un and his regime have completely banned smiling on July 8th every year this date is significant in the country as the death date of founder and former president Kim ilung who passed in 1994 on each anniversary of his death citizens are not allowed to smile

talk loudly dance or drink alcohol no fun celebrations or activities can be held either so if it's your birthday that day you're completely out of luck disregarding these rules will send you to the labor camp and may even be cause for your dispatch who would have thought smiling could be a capital crime well in recent times it's only gotten worse the government banned laughing for 11 days straight in a show of mourning this rule was enforced to honor the 10th anniversary of Kim Jong 's death the predecessor and father mother to Kim Jong-un this has

got to be the weirdest Family Tradition ever online off limits it's extremely hard to picture our lives without the internet now over 65% of the world's population has access to it and it's actively used by 5.3 billion people you're using it to watch this video right now and yet North Koreans can't use it the way we do at all instead of the internet North Korea provides its citizens with access to an intranet a domestic only Network known as Quang meang which back in 2014 boasted it gave its users access to 5,500 websites including things like

video games though all communication and activity on them is monitored no privacy here certainly State officials can be granted access to the wider internet but with the suppression of information being so important to the regime even this can be limited in 2016 a security engineer discovered North Korea had actually created 28 websites available on the wider internet these include friend.com KP a kind of hyper political Facebook which apparently has some 18 million members there's also cook.or KP a recipe website and core film.com KP where you can watch hundreds of North Korean films documentaries and even

anime yes anime it's believed more sites have been added in recent years but still compared to the two billion sites on the worldwide web it's barely anything at all job jail when you were younger what did you want to be when you grew up an astronaut a ballerina a YouTuber yeah you can tell which one I was unfortunately North Korean kids don't get to dream because everyone's lifelong job is delegated by the government why well that's simple to maintain the rigid control of resources under its collectivism system the government researches how many people are needed

in each industry and location then assigns people accordingly when kids graduate high school the government assigns each and every graduate with jobs they think proper or necess necessary what the kids or their parents want isn't taken into consideration unless big bribes are involved and once you're assigned work it's almost impossible to be transferred for example during Kim Jong 's rain he supervised an area called tongen gun which had a good potato Supply but had few people living in it so thousands of graduates were relocated to riang gang to become lifelong potato Farmers they had to

build houses with their own hands and knew that their children would also likely grow up to be potato Farmers thanks to the system but there was nothing they could do well at the very least I really hope they like potatoes forbidden faith in the west freedom of religion is a pretty essential human right you can choose to believe whatever you want being that the Son of God walked among us as the Bible teaches or that Galactic Warlords invaded our volcanoes 75 million years ago as Scientology claims but in North Korea freedom of Faith isn't a

thing in 2014 an American was imprisoned for 5 months for leaving his Bible in a North Korean restaurant toilet the outrage this incident caused stems from the fact that North Korea is a largely atheist state with an enormous 70% of its citizens having no no religion although there are churches located in pongyang these buildings are fully operated by the state tourists have reported that churches can be closed during advertised sermon times and when they are open they're filled with political propaganda and fake Believers observing the Christian religion as in North Korean is restricted completely because

having faith in a higher power more savior likee figure conflicts with having faith in the reigning regime you can't believe in both according to North Korea it's the Kim family or nothing one extreme case in 20203 involved the arrest of a family including their 2-year-old daughter for possessing a Bible all family members including the toddler were apparently sentenced to life in prison yep Kim jong-un's definitely going to hell for this one threes a crowd many things may be considered good luck a symbol a number or even worshiping a particular God in North Korea triplets are

supposed to represent Good Fortune not only are they venerated because of the falling birth rate in the country but they are also signs of luck and prosperity this is why when triplets are born they're automatically taken away by the state the regime will have the mother fly into pyang to receive the best care when giving birth the government will then give the parents gifts in exchange for the kids a gold ring for girls and a silver knife for boys the children are only given back to their parents at the age of four after being raised

in a state-run orphanage or Nursery School in the city even after they've grown being a triplet will give you better access to money success and quality of life in North Korea with better chances of being admitted to the military or attending University the handing out special benefits is nice but taking away the kids from their families because they're considered lucky ironically I'd say that's actually pretty unlucky mortal kin if you have siblings you've probably been blamed for something they did at some point whether it was deliberate or an accident taking the heat for your family's

mistakes feels unfair but in North Korea you can be jailed just for being related to a criminal this is what's known as the three generation sentence or kin punishment this means that committing a crime will also condemn three generations of your family which could be your children and grandchildren or your parents and grandparents with a rule like this the government deters the vast majority of people from rebelling as it's not uncommon for a whole family to receive a life sentence for one criminal's action children born in prison are actually raised as prisoners too because their

blood is deemed Guilty By Association jeez this law began after World War II ended in an effort to eliminate the blood lineage of North Korean Rebels the only thing is World War II ended almost 100 years ago and this rule is still in effect making it as old as it is horrifying the time War it's the early 21st century that's what it says on all the calendars right wrong 168 countries use the Gregorian calendar but some use their own and North Korea is one of them they have their own system called ju an ideology centered

on self-reliance and independence from the outside world the juj calendar is unique in that it only goes back as far as April 15th 1912 why because that's the birth date of North Korea's Founding Father Kim ilung this was turned into the year number one and all the years since are now numbered that way for instance the year 2010 was actually the year 99 in North Korea there are also no before ju days which means history before 1912 is not well spoken of or learned yeah that's right children's education is full of propaganda too the calendar

was officially implemented on September 9th 1997 and on that date all North Korean newspapers radio stations birth certificates and other media were converted like keeping track of the date wasn't hard enough already no laughing matter when the president of the United States was asked if they were worried about the national debt you know what they said nah it's big enough to take care of itself yeah that was a pretty bad joke although the worst I'll get is some keyboard Warriors in the comments Down Below in North Korea though a joke like that could have cost

me my life seriously anything that disrespects the Kim family in particular is considered blasphemy and would be met with severe consequences even a minor Jive this doesn't have to be verbal disrespect either portraits of the leaders Kim ilung and Kim Jong ill are hung in every house and it's obligatory to wear party badges with their images on their clothes not taking the care to maintain them or even dust them properly can get you in trouble to combat this each family is given a special duster specifically for cleaning these portraits the Kim family and their government

are meant to be revered almost looked up to as Gods so it's no no surprise some people bow to them every morning luckily we're outside this insanely egotistical joke free jurisdiction so take a hike Kim Jong no fun DV don't back in the 1960s TV became a musthave item in western homes with a total of just three channels to watch of course there's hundreds of TV broadcasts to spoil yourself with now but unsurprisingly North Korea is stuck in the past it offers just four state-owned TV channels to choose from exclusively showing programs glorifying the regime

and its achievements anything else is banned this goes for All Foreign media including movies music and even books if the propaganda Department finds just one article from the big Bann list in a citizen's possession their entire collection can be destroyed punishments vary depending on the content and background of the Contraband too watching an Indian film may get you sent to prison but an American movie can sign your uh dispatch certificate in 2021 a man was dispatched for Distributing copies of the North Korean Thriller series squid game this offense was particularly serious as the show mentions

North Korea's regime and it paints it in a negative light by including a fictional Defector from the country however experts have debated whether this report is real or not as covid Lockdown of the country which saw its borders closed to all trade would have made it impossible to smuggle in and yet the government haven't denied this so it's possible the story was spread to prevent anyone in North Korea from acquiring it that's as smart as it is Sinister banned Brands nowadays you won't find many things without a huge brand slapped on it we drink Coca-Cola

often we pick up McDonald's now and again but North Korea hates Brands especially American ones branding is related to capitalist living the exact opposite of the Communist socialist dream the Kim Dynasty is striving for because of this the country is one of the only places in the world that doesn't sell Coca-Cola and you'd be hard pressed to find a McDonald's there too they do have fast food chains of their own such as s song a burger joint whose locations are limited exclusively to pongyang but this is only for tourists and the elite as it's a

business venture owned and operated by Kim jong-un's ant instead of relying on fast foods the majority of the population relies on traditional Staples like kimchi and potatoes while this is due in part to the avoidance of everything Western the economic sanctions placed on North Korea by America means that trading between the two countries is practically non-existent however there's a huge Mount Everest siiz level of hypocrisy to this Rule the Day song department store caters to the elite in panyang by selling luxury Brands such as Rolex Dior Chanel and even more common Brands like Adidas which

are all Western capitalist labels Kim jong-un's wife Marie oldj likes wearing these expensive Western Brands herself so brands are banned if you're poor but fine to buy if you're part of the elite I don't know about you but that sounds less like communism and more like a new brand of capitalism portrait protectors in a fire what's the first thing you grab obviously it would be what's most precious to you right a parent would instantly grab their child or a loving owner might grab their pet well in North Korea the first thing you have to take

with you are those damned portraits no really when disaster strikes the first thing citizens must do is save the pictures of Kim ilung and Kim Jong ill and only after this can they save their own lives and belongings respect for the leaders as we've come to realize is no joke back in 2020 it was reported that a mother of two actually faced jail time after saving her children from a fire and leaving behind the pictures we can hope that she's no longer being held by the state but something tells me the North Korean government loves

to hold a grudge rules of the game if you're a basketball fan you might feel a little confused when watching a North Korean game as we've learned North Korea has its own way of doing things so naturally their basketball games are vastly different firstly the famous three-pointer is worth four points if the ball passes through the net without striking the basket or backboard and a slam dunk acquires an extra point making it worth three instead of two that's not all the point can be deducted for every missed free throw and any field goal made in

the last 3 seconds of a game can not only earn your team extra it can completely change the outcome with a bump up of eight points games can also end in a tie against opponents something that's rare in the normal rule book Kim Jong ill supposedly added these amendments because he uh thought it could improve the rules of the game by God this man's ego is unbelievable also it turns out he was a fan of the 1990s Chicago Bulls team you know that famously American team that's a slam dunk for hypocrisy right there which of

these rules and laws did you think was the craziest of them all and controversially are there any you agree with let me know down in the comments and thanks for watching [Music]