david waker 
North Korea has banned its people from laughing for 11 days. Here's why
North Korea has reportedly banned its people from laughing or drinking as part of the 10th death anniversary of leader Kim Jong Il. The country observed the anniversary on Friday with flags at half-mast and three twinkles of silence. Kim Jong Il ruled North Korea for 17 times until his death in December 2011, passing on power to his son Kim Jong Un.
“ During the mourning period, we mustn’t drink alcohol, laugh or engage in rest conditioning,” a occupant of the northeastern border megacity of Sinuiju told Radio Free Asia’s Korean Service.
At a forecourt in Pyongyang, people marked the anniversary by bowing their heads in silence before pictures of Kim Jong Il and his father Kim Il Sung, the author of North Korea.
People were also seen bowing before a mosaic tempera of the two Kims, and leaving flowers at the base on a indurating day in Pyongyang.
North Korea’s tightly controlled state media on Friday ran studies praising Kim Jong Il’s” revolutionary leadership”, while prompting people to remain devoted to his son.
With admired leader Kim Jong Un at the centre, we must strengthen our party and revolutionary fidelity,” said Rodong Sinmun, the sanctioned review of the ruling Workers’Party.
It further stressed that people should cleave”to the ideas and leadership”of Kim Jong Un.
The country closed its borders last time to guard against the coronavirus but its frugality has been poorly hit by the tone- assessed leaguer, on top of the transnational warrants over its munitions programmes.
