This is definitely not a laughing matter: North Korea has banned its citizens from laughing for a total of 11 days, as the country marks 10 years since the death of Kim Jong Un’s father and predecessor, Kim Jong II. Kim Jong Il ruled North Korea from 1994 until his death in 2011. He was then succeeded by his third and youngest son, current leader Kim Jong Un. That’s not all, North Korea has even banned shopping on the exact day of Kim Jong’s death – 17 December. The TJWG conducted interviews with close to 640 North Korean defectors since 2015, all in an effort to better map out execution sites and numbers.

Source: The North Africa Journal December 19, 2021 09:12 UTC