Pink highlights, tramlines, cornrows - subversive enough to get children sent home from school for transgressing uniform rules. But that is nothing compared with new strictures on hairstyles in North Korea.

The state has launched a campaign against what are seen as decadent foreign influences. Men should keep their hair short, official media reports, while women should have it tied up. The initiative was on the orders of Dear Leader Kim Jong-il. He apparently took exception to the hairstyle sported by a shop assistant, accusing her of giving up her traditional beauty to model the bad habits of foreign capitalists.

Korean cram schools, page 20.