North Korean authorities are learned to have banned women from riding bicycles since this past May. During a recent visit to the North, a Korean-Chinese residing in Yanbin in northeastern China, Kim Un Hui, (alias), was reportedly dissuaded by her relatives there from riding a bicycle to the marketplace. They told her, "The party has issued an instruction forbidding women to ride bicycles," but acknowledged that residents had complained against the party order in question bitterly.

The reason for the alleged party instruction banning bicycle-riding by females is not known. "North Korea is reinforcing crackdowns with a view to uprooting capitalist elements in the society, And the bicycle-riding ban for women seems to be part of the campaign," speculated Kim.

Early in the 1990s policemen cracked down on women riding on the back seat of bicycles driven by men on the grounds that it was indecent and various instructions were issued at that time. One forbid women from having long hair, another from wearing long trousers on ordinary occasions, and still another from wearing red trousers.

Bicycles in North Korea are perhaps even more important and precious than private cars in South Korea. Accordingly, bicycles are used almost exclusively by men, and women find it difficult to ride bicycles even if they want to. But since the acute food shortage prompted housewives to secure food by all possible means, the number of women riding bicycles has increased in recent years. "It's a matter of life or death for housewives to ride bicycles," Kim observed, "Accordingly, it's doubtful if the ban on women's bicycle-riding will be effective."

(Kang Chol Hwan, nkch@chosun.com )