North Korean state-run TV has launched a campaign to rid the country of long hair.

The hair campaign comes as North Korea's dictatorship struggles to tighten its control over information, monitor its population and dictate cultural tastes. It is directing men to wear their hair "socialist style," deriding shabbily coifed men as "blind followers of bourgeois lifestyle."

North Korea's state-run Central TV even identifies violators by name and address, exposing them to jeers from other citizens. "We cannot help questioning the cultural taste of this comrade, who is incapable of feeling ashamed of his hair style," the station said Monday, showing a Mr. Ko Gwang Hyun, whose unkempt hair covered his ears. "Can we expect a man with this disheveled mind-set to perform his duty well?"