We all know some Western men who are spellbound by what they consider to be the exotic femininity and beauty of East Asian women. Maybe you’re one yourself. After reading the following two accounts of women in North Korea, however, they just might discover that the spell has been broken.

The first story I could find only in the print edition of the Nishinippon Shimbun. That paper’s Seoul correspondent passes along a report from the South Korean Ministry of Unification on the transformation of North Korean women and their attitude toward marriage and work. The ministry’s report states that the women of the north are putting off or avoiding marriage and carving out a career—in the North Korean army.

In the past, it was considered ideal for women to get married around the age of 25 (as it used to be in Japan), and single women at the age of 30 were considered losers in the matrimonial sweepstakes. But the changing role of women in society around the world seems to have had an impact in North Korea, too, despite its relative isolation. Interviews with recent defectors reveal the women in that country are getting fed up with the men. By tradition, Korean women were supposed to unconditionally obey and respect their husbands, but that’s going by the wayside now, as it has most everywhere else. North Korean divorce laws and procedures are said to be complicated, and even repeated physical abuse is not grounds for divorce.

The ministry says that as a result, greater numbers of women are instead joining the army and using that as a springboard for membership in the Korean Workers’ Party (the only party in town), just as membership applications from the men are declining. The overall total of women in the army is estimated to have reached 15%.

This trend is starting to have an impact in society. The ministry reports that the increasing independence of North Korean women has resulted in more women with financial clout who are marrying younger men. With economic conditions in the northern part of the peninsula still miserable at best, the new-found strength of women is altering existing attitudes toward the family. Well, we all know what talks and what walks, don’t we?

The second story has been more widely reported, and here is the AP account of the championship fights held by the World Boxing Council Female (sic) in front of 13,000 people in Pyongyang last week. The North Koreans won all four bouts, disposing of challengers from South Korea, the United States, Japan, and Mexico.

Kim Kwang Ok took the bantamweight crown and was interviewed by the Yonhap news agency after the fight:

The strongest are those who win over the strong. Although the Japanese boxer was persistent, I pressed her with all my might…I’m glad we showed how strong North Korea’s women’s boxing is.

But this is still boxing, and like the sport everywhere else in the world, it has a shady side here, too. The WBCF was founded by promoter Park Sang-kwon, who says that his goal is to bring North and South Korea closer together. The International Female Boxers Association, however, wouldn’t sanction the matches and stripped the titles from two of the North Korean fighters. IFBA founder Rick Kulis said Park has a conflict of interest because he is both the head of the WBCF and the promoter for the North Korean fighters. Park claims that he is promoting the fighters because no one else will do it.

Still, in the unlikely event you meet and get sweet on a North Korean woman, it might pay to remember that in addition to having money of her own, she might be able to drop you with one punch.