A South Ealing hairdresser has incurred the wrath of the North Korea Embassy by mocking the hairstyle of its supreme leader Kim Jong Un in the window.
M&M Hair Academy in South Ealing Road placed an image of Mr Kim under the title Bad Hair Day, offering the discount. But the following day two men claiming to be North Korean officials from the nearby embassy in Gunnersbury Avenue went to the shop and ordered owner Mo Nabbach to remove the sign.
His son Karim, who is 26 and works at the hairdressers, was there at the time. He said: “They came in and intimidated us. They told us we needed to take the poster down. They really put the frighteners on my dad. My father told them to leave. He told them that this was not North Korea, that we lived in England and it was a democracy, and if they had a problem with it to come back with lawyers."
Mr Nabbach reported the incident to police and has subsequently removed the poster from the shop window.
Karim, who came up with the promotional idea and designed the poster, said: “I had no idea it would develop into a diplomatic incident, we just wanted to promote our offer. We decided to take it down because it was basically drawing so much attention. It was turning into a tourist attraction with people stopping to take photos. It served more of a purpose than we wanted it to.”
Police confirmed they were called about the incident by both Mr Nabbach and embassy. It said no offences had been identified and no arrests made, but they had spoken to all parties involved and are in liaison with North Korean embassy.
No one from the embassy was available to comment.
It is not the first time this year Kim Jong-un and his hair have made the headlines. Last month it was reported that male students in the communist state were required to get the same distinctive short-back and sides hairstyle as their leader.
