Report: North Korea Bans Gatherings with ‘Drinking, Singing, and Other Entertainment’

North Korean authorities have banned people from “drinking, singing, and other forms of entertainment” in an attempt to maintain control as the country advances its nuclear ambitions, South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported.

South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) claims that the North seeks to prevent a “possible negative impact” of the increasing international sanctions, particularly from the United States and the United Nations, that they could affect public morale.

“[Pyongyang] has devised a system whereby party organs report people’s economic hardships on a daily basis, and it has banned any gatherings related to drinking, singing and other entertainment and is strengthening control of outside information,” the NIS said.

Systematic repression is commonplace in the hermit state. Citizens are expected to conform to a strict array of rules concerning political devotion, lifestyle, and various social norms or face consequences such as labor camps or even execution.

Authorities in North have also recently initiated an ideological examination of all members of the military over fears of an “impure attitude toward the party leadership.”

The report also revealed that authorities in the South are expecting additional North Korean missile tests soon.

“We forecast that depending upon North Korean leader Kim’s determination, a nuclear test is possible any time,” the agency said.

The country’s last weapons test took place in September. The regime successfully conducted its sixth test of an alleged hydrogen bomb and launched a missile over Japan, as diplomats in Japan and South Korea warned that their nuclear weapons capacity is now reaching “unprecedented, critical, and imminent” levels.

The ideological crackdown and continued expansion of the country’s nuclear capabilities follow President Donald Trump’s tour of the region, where he urged Chinese President Xi Jinping to do more to de-escalate tensions with the North.

Last week, China announced they had sent a special envoy to North Korea to “exchange views on the Korean peninsula issue,” although the visit appears to have ended in failure.

On Monday, Trump confirmed that the U.S. would designate North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism and impose a “very large” new sanction on the country.

“This designation will oppose further sanctions and penalties on North Korea and related persons, and supports our maximum pressure campaign to isolate the murderous regime that you’ve all been reading about, and in some cases, writing about,” Trump said. “Tomorrow, the Treasury Department will be announcing an additional sanction, and a very large one, on North Korea.”

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