Report: North Korea Cracks Down on Drinking to Stop Drunken Political Talk

A North Korean couple celebrates their wedding at a monument to North Korea’s ruling Worker’s Party on Oct. 19, 2007, in Pyongyang, North Korea. Wedding celebrations face possible trouble after a new decree banned drinking alcohol in groups larger than three in North Korea. Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images

In an effort to crack down on drunken criticisms of the regime, North Korea is instituting a restriction on drinking, throttling one of the few fun things North Koreans were allowed to do.

Poor and oppressed, North Koreans, particularly outside Pyongyang, have neither the means nor the freedom to pursue levity.