In the eyes of the North Korean regime, jeans are part of the ‘pernicious imperialist culture’ with which the United States undermines the ideological purity of the North Korean people. That is why jeans, along with long or dyed hair, shirts with foreign texts and exuberant make-up, have been banned since the 1990s.
This campaign has intensified with a Law on Rejection of Reactionary Ideology and Culture introduced in 2020, which discourages the wearing of jeans in typical North Korean fashion. Offenders risk forced labor in a prison camp.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is said to be particularly disgusted by skinny jeans, the very tight trousers, often with rolled-up legs, that are also extremely popular in neighboring South Korea. But North Korean state television also took no chances with the baggy work jeans in which 74-year-old Titchmarsh does his garden chores.
About the author
Marije Vlaskamp is foreign editor of de Volkskrant and writes about China’s position in the world. She also follows developments elsewhere in Asia. She was a Beijing correspondent for 18 years.
KCTV, which broadcasts thirteen hours of largely pre-recorded content daily from 9 a.m., regularly airs lifestyle programs in the morning hours. For example, a cooking program with recipes for meatballs or a North Korean variant Own House and Garden. State television also sometimes broadcasts Russian or Chinese feature films and Premier League football matches. These are stolen from foreign channels.
Illegal soap operas
The programming is in line with the message in state propaganda that living standards in North Korea have never been higher. Good foreign programs should discourage young people from watching banned foreign soap operas. These are smuggled into the country in large quantities from neighboring China on USB sticks.
Anyone caught watching this illegal entertainment risks 3 to 15 years in prison. People who own large quantities of Japanese, South Korean and American series receive the death penalty. To ensure that North Koreans keep a close eye on each other’s viewing habits, family members or colleagues of viewers of illegal foreign television are also punished. For foreign tourists, who can walk around in jeans with impunity, there is international satellite television in luxury hotels intended for foreigners.
Tough
Garden Secrets has been broadcast since 2022. These are shortened versions of older episodes with a North Korean voice-over, instrumental music and, as turned out this week, washed-out jeans. The presenter himself is surprised that his pants have fallen into disfavor in North Korea. “I have never considered myself a dangerous subversive imperialist,” Titchmarsh told the BBC. “I have a cozy and innocuous image, so this gives me something cool, right?”
How North Korean state television obtained the BBC program is a mystery. In a period of openness in Pyongyang, the BBC had in 2014, according to the British newspaper Sunday Times a plan to use the North Koreans as British soft power innocent television programs as a gift, such as Mr. Bean or the Teletubbies. Whether that ever got to that point and whether Garden Secrets was in that package is unknown.
Tags: North Koreans watch British garden television censored imperialist jeans
