North Korea’s strict censorship policies reached a new height as the state television censored British presenter Alan Titchmarsh’s blue jeans during a broadcast of the BBC gardening show “Garden Secrets”.
The move is seen as another attempt by the regime to clamp down on Western influence, even in seemingly innocuous programming.
In the episode aired on Korean Central Television (KCTV) on Monday, Alan Titchmarsh was shown tending to plants in a garden bed while wearing blue jeans. However, the regime applied a blurring effect to his legs, albeit unsuccessfully concealing the fact that he was clad in denim.
This censorship marks a continuation of North Korea’s efforts to restrict Western fashion and culture. Blue jeans have been banned in the country since the early 1990s, with former leader Kim Jong Il categorically stating that they are forbidden under any circumstances, considering them a symbol of American imperialism.
Despite this long-standing ban, it is unusual for North Korea to censor foreigners on television for wearing jeans.
The DPRK’s crackdown on foreign cultural influence has intensified in recent years, with leader Kim Jong Un identifying such influences as tools used by capitalist countries to undermine North Korea’s socialist ideology.
Reports from 2022 suggested that North Korean authorities were specifically targeting popular South Korean fashion trends, such as skinny jeans and torn jeans.
Interestingly, despite the ban on wearing jeans, North Korea once manufactured designer jeans for export to Sweden in 2009. However, the Swedish department store planning to sell them reportedly pulled the jeans from shelves to avoid controversy.
When broadcasting foreign television programs like “Garden Secrets,” KCTV edits the episodes down to 15 minutes, replaces the original commentary with a Korean narrator, and adds a soundtrack of North Korean instrumental music.
This practice is likely due to sanctions preventing Pyongyang from acquiring the rights to such broadcasts.
