Keeping North Korean culture pure

kinds that are sneaking into the country in a bid to shore up the regime's increasingly brittle control.

On Sunday the official Rodong Sinmun daily published a whole slew of articles that lambasted the "degenerate" way North Koreans now speak, dress and wear makeup.

The regime recently passed a draconian law that mandates the death penalty for disseminating South Korean movies, TV dramas or music videos.

"The use of dishonorable language harms the harmony and unity of the community and has a bad influence on society." Keeping North Korean culture pure "is a matter of whether we will be able to protect our national identity from an invasion by all kinds of unhealthy and degenerate ideologies and lifestyles," it added.

Any culture which doesn't involve the idolisation of the Kim dynasty – the sacred Mount Paektu bloodline – is, according to the official line, "unhealthy and degenerate".