Hoxton hipsters meet Communist rulers pic: Flickr Peter Snoopy

He may be the supreme leader of North Korea following his father’s death last month, but it doesn’t mean Kim Jong-un is safe from a poke by opinion columnist for The Independent, Susie Rushton.

In today’s paper, Rushton mocks the 28-year-old, not for his rulership qualities, nor for his oppressive genealogical tendencies, but for his haircut. One that Rushton believes wouldn’t look out of place in Hoxton. And being Hackney afficionados here at EastLondonLines, we wholeheartedly agree.

The closely-shaven sides and boxy curtains-style fringe are supposed to make Kim Junior resemble his grandfather, Kim Il-sung, but we agree with Rushton when she says, “it’s a look that begins with, in its most extreme version, Travis Bickle, via the BBC’s Evan Davis, to the streets of Hoxton.”

“Boyish and non-conformist, it is a style usually worn by gay men”, she continues.

Officially, and perhaps not suprisingly, Kim Jong-un’s haircut is a success. Indeed, it is hailed as his first great statement. Inside North Korea, it has been dubbed “the ambition”.

One newspaper, Rodon Sunming, has reported that young men are queueing up outside Pyongyang barbershops to pay homeage to their new supreme leader. The paper added: “A young man with an ambitious high-sided hair cut looks so sobering and stylish.”

Stylish is definitely the right word, with Kim’s haircut adorning the streets of Dalston, Hoxton and Haggerston this winter, with no end in sight for Hackney’s hipster adolescents.  We don’t know about you, but here at EastLondonLines we’re watching for Kim Jong-un’s cameo in the next episode of Dalston Superstars!