America News Agency

North Korean state television censored a pair of jeans while broadcasting a British gardening program on Monday, in a move that appeared to reflect the regime's efforts to clamp down on popular Western fashion and culture.

In an episode of the BBC program "Garden Secrets," British broadcaster Alan Titchmarsh is kneeling in a garden bed, tending to plants in his jeans.

But when Korean Central Television (KCTV) broadcast the episode on Monday, it applied a blurring effect to his legs.

North Korea has aired the episode about the 17th-century Hatfield House gardens in England several times since 2022, although it was first broadcast in the UK in 2010.

Blue jeans have been banned in North Korea since at least the early 90s, according to North Korea researcher and NK Pro contributor Peter Ward, who said that former leader Kim Jong Il told his citizens that jeans were "strictly forbidden and people should not wear them under any circumstances."

But Ward said it was unusual for North Korea to "censor foreigners on television for wearing jeans," given that authorities have allowed tourists visiting the country to wear almost any Western fashion over the years.