North Korean TV Censors Blue Jeans While Airing British Gardening Show
North Korean state television censored a pair of blue jeans when airing a British gardening show on Monday, a move that appears to reflect the regime’s efforts to restrict popular Western fashion and culture.
The British broadcaster Alan Titchmarsh kneels in a garden bed while tending to plants in a pair of jeans.
But when broadcasting the episode on Monday, the Korean Central Television (KCTV) applied a blurring effect to his legs, though this did not conceal the fact that he was wearing blue pants.
North Korea has aired the episode about the 17th-century Hatfield House gardens in the U.K. several times since 2022, despite the fact that it first aired in the U.K. back in 2010.
The DPRK’s past broadcasts of the show drew the attention of British media and even the presenter Titchmarsh himself, who expressed surprise at appearing on North Korean TV, but the decision to blur the jeans passed without notice.
Blue jeans have been banned in North Korea since at least the early 90s, according to a North Korea researcher and NK Pro contributor Peter Ward, who said former leader Kim Jong Il effectively told citizens that jeans are “absolutely verboten and people should not wear them under any circumstances.”
However, he said it’s unusual for North Korea to “censor foreigners on TV for wearing jeans” given that authorities have allowed tourists who have visited the country over the years to wear almost any Western fashion.
The DPRK reportedly views jeans as a “symbol of American imperialism” given their close association with the U.S.
