The row over a London hairdresser putting a picture of dictator Kim Jong-un in his shop window threatened to escalate into a diplomatic incident today after the North Korean embassy asked the Foreign Office to intervene.
Diplomats from the reclusive and repressive regime sent a letter to the Foreign Office on Monday calling for it to take “necessary action to stop the provocation”, according to a source.
Foreign Secretary William Hague’s officials were today considering how best to respond to the demand.
They may refer the diplomats to the police.
But Enfield Southgate Conservative MP David Burrowes, who sits on the all-party parliamentary group on North Korea, criticised the embassy’s stance.
“On the one hand their response is laughable,” he said.
“But underlying is a more sinister undertone which is played out in North Korea with people being locked up, killed and denied freedoms.”
The Standard revealed yesterday how M&M Hair Academy in South Ealing, west London, had a visit from North Korean officials after poking fun at their leader’s unusual hairstyle.
Staff at the hair salon put up a poster with “Bad Hair Day?” emblazoned across a picture of Kim Jong-un, with details of a special offer on men’s haircuts in April.
The dictator sports a striking hairdo which is shaved around the sides and then longer on top.
Barber Karim Nabbach, 26, said that salon manager Mo Nabbach was confronted by two men claiming to be officials from the country, demanding to know his name.
The North Korean embassy is ten minutes walk from the hair salon.
Karim Nabbach explained: “We put up posters for an offer for men’s hair cuts through the month of April. Obviously in the current news there has been this story that North Korean men are only allowed one haircut.
“The next day we had North Korean officials pop into the salon asking to speak to the manager.
“He said ‘listen this isn’t North Korea, this is England, we live in a democracy so I’m afraid you’re going to have to get out of my salon’.”
The manager later reported the visit to police, and the embassy also contacted officers.
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The salon has become a “tourist attraction”, with people heading for it to see the picture of the tyrant which has sparked the controversy.
Karim Nabbach added: “We always put up little offers in the window, it’s harmless. We were just making light of a bad situation in North Korea.”
A spokesman for Scotland Yard said officers had spoken to all parties involved and no offence had been discovered.
