North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has imposed a sweeping ban on words like “hamburger,” “ice cream,” and “karaoke”, declaring them “too Western” and unfit for use inside the country. The order is part of a nationwide drive to erase foreign cultural influence and enforce state-approved North Korean terminology.

As reported by Daily NK, even tour guides at the newly developed Wonsan beach resort have been directed to avoid Westernised vocabulary when interacting with international visitors. They are now undergoing government-run training programmes to memorise and use only local, state-sanctioned terms.

For instance:

“Hamburger” must be called dajin-gogi gyeopppang (“double bread with ground beef”).

“Ice cream” has been renamed eseukimo.

“Karaoke” is now officially described as an “on-screen accompaniment machine.”

“The goal is to teach tourism professionals to consciously use North Korean vocabulary while avoiding South Korean expressions and foreign loanwords,” Daily NK noted.

This linguistic crackdown is only the latest move in Kim’s broader war on foreign influence. According to a United Nations report, Pyongyang has been tightening controls on access to information since 2014, particularly targeting media and language from so-called “hostile nations.”

By 2015, laws criminalised not just foreign media, but also words deemed “anti-socialist.” Punishments have been severe — including public executions to ‘instil fear’ in the population.