As if living in North Korea wasn’t bad enough, things just got worse.

Reports from inside North Korea indicate that leader Kim Jong-un has launched a new campaign targeting women who have undergone breast augmentation surgery, calling the procedure “un-socialist” and emblematic of “rotten capitalist acts.”

Worldwide, an estimated 1 to 3 million women a year get breast augmentation procedures.

According to South Korean outlet Daily NK, the crackdown has led to public trials, secret police inspections, and the mobilization of neighborhood watch groups instructed to identify women suspected of cosmetic surgery. The move is part of a broader push by Pyongyang to tighten ideological control and suppress behaviors deemed contrary to socialist values.

Sources in North Hwanghae Province reported that in mid-September, a public trial was held at a cultural hall in Sariwon for a doctor accused of performing illegal breast surgeries and for two women who received them. Witnesses said the doctor stood with his head bowed throughout the proceedings as prosecutors condemned the women for adopting “bourgeois customs.”

“The women living in a socialist system have been corrupted by bourgeois customs and have committed rotten capitalist acts,” prosecutors declared, according to Daily NK. The presiding judge vowed “strict punishment,” branding the operations an “anti-socialist act.”

The case revealed that silicone implants used in the procedures had been smuggled from China, prompting authorities to order tighter border inspections and new directives for local surveillance groups.

After the trial, Kim reportedly instructed security services to intensify their monitoring efforts. Agents were told to go undercover and stop women in public for questioning if they appeared to have undergone surgery. In some neighborhoods, local watch associations were ordered to send suspected individuals to hospitals for examinations.

Residents say fear has spread among women across the country, many of whom worry they could be subjected to invasive body checks or public humiliation.

While cosmetic surgery has become increasingly common across Asia, it remains tightly restricted in North Korea, where personal appearance is considered a matter of ideological loyalty. The latest campaign is one of several recent measures by Kim’s regime aimed at stamping out what it calls “capitalist influences,” including Western fashion trends, hair styles, and media consumption.

The fate of the doctor and the two women remains unclear, though sources suggest they could face prison or forced labor sentences for their alleged “un-socialist” behavior.