North Korea’s Kim wants to cancel handshakes

NKeconWatch: I actually agree with Kim Jong Il with this one.  Call me neurotic, but after shaking many peoples’ hands, I head straight for the sink at the first opportunity!

ITAR-TASS
1/17/2007

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has urged his countrymen to abstain from shaking hands and greet people with a traditional Korean slight head bow.

The Rodon Sinmun newspaper published Kim’s article where he wrote in particular, “it is necessary to great each other Korean style. Handshake is a European custom and it is no good hygienically.”

However, a day after the publication many North Koreans, especially males, continued to shake hands as they used to do this before, a Tass correspondent reported from the capital of North Korea Tuesday.

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