Seoul — Government guidelines aimed at promoting more diversity in South Korea's K-pop world have been withdrawn after critics said they amounted to state censorship of a booming industry.

The guidelines issued last week complained that K-pop stars looked too alike, saying "the problem of ... uniformity among singers is serious", and noting most idols were thin and wore identical make-up and skimpy outfits.

South Korea's K-pop world is a multi-billion-dollar business, but so too is the plastic surgery industry in the image-obsessed country, and tens of thousands of people go under the knife every year in pursuit of the perfect look.

The guidelines from the ministry of gender equality drew criticism online -- and also from a lawmaker who said it was reminiscent of censorship during the country's period of authoritarian government which ended in 1980s.

Demanding the state apologizes, Lawmaker Ha Tae-keung said the guidelines were a "totalitarian and unconstitutional idea".

Until the late 1980s, censorship permeated every part of South Korean society and the state controlled everything from what could be screened on TV to the length of a man's hair.

In 2017 all four members of K-pop band SixBomb went through extensive plastic surgery, from nose jobs to breast implants, before releasing a single.

A series of videos showed the four women visiting a clinic, strutting into an operating theater and lying on the operating table. — AFP