North Koreans forced to change names

North Korea’s authorities are fighting the “insufficiently ideological” names of their citizens, they write foreign media with reference to anonymous sources within the country.

It is reported that in the past the North Koreans encouraged their children patriotic names containing ideological or even militaristic meaning, such as Jung Sim (Fidelity), Jung Il (weapon), Pok il (bomb) or uy Song (satellite).

However, in recent years, when the country has become more open to the outside world, the North Koreans began to call their children more soft and harmonious names that are easier to pronounce, for example, and Ri (beloved person), with Ra (shell) and Sui (Sui) Super -beautiful), reports domestic sources.

Instead of names that end with more firm consonants, children give names that end with softer vowels, which is more like the names that give children in South Korea.

But recently, the North Korean authorities have been strictly suppressing this trend, demanding from citizens with softer names to change the names to more ideological.

“Residents complain that the authorities force people to change their names in accordance with the standards required by the state. Starting from last month, announcements on the correction of all names without finite consonants are constantly heard at the meeting of residents of the quarter. The end of the year to add a political meaning to your name in order to meet the revolutionary standards, ”the anonymous resident of the DPRK reports.