North Korea: where bicycle licence plates are non-negotiable

If Grant Shapps is looking for a ‘model’, the secretive state has strict rules on ownership and who can cycle

If the British transport secretary, Grant Shapps, is looking for a “model” for his bicycle registration plates proposal he could turn to one of the world’s most illiberal countries: North Korea.

After decades of being frowned upon as a primitive means of transport for citizens of a modern, socialist paradise, cycling gained official acceptance in the secretive state in 1992 – although it is officially banned for women.