Amid the growing popularity of a South Korean delicacy inspired by the United States, President Kim Jong Un has claimed that serving hotdogs was an act of treason, according to The Sun.
In the nation’s notorious labor camps, where divorcees may also be imprisoned, anyone found selling or preparing hot dogs faces the possibility of spending time there.
A dish imported from its neighbor, South Korea, budae-jjigae, is prohibited from being sold as part of the regime’s efforts to suppress capitalist culture among its populace. Ingredients for the spicy Korean-American hotpot include spam or hot dogs.
It began as a result of hungry people using meat scraps from US soldiers stationed in the area during the Korean War in the 1950s to make stews.
Decades after it was created in the south, the dish is thought to have crossed the border into North Korea sometime in 2017.
Authorities have now prohibited the dish, along with steamed rice cakes called tteokbokki, which are also a common street meal in its neighboring country, according to a November Radio Free Asia (RFA) report.
The Sun was informed by a vendor in the northern province of Ryanggang that “budae-jjigae sales in the market have stopped.”
“Those who are caught selling it will be shut down,” the police and market management have stated.
In December, there were additional reports of North Korean citizens saying divorcees were sentenced to one to six months in labor camps for their “crimes.”
Since the government must approve all legal separations, divorce is discouraged in the communist country since it is seen as an anti-socialist act.
Women were given harsher sentences than men, according to a divorced woman who told RFA that she had performed three months of labor in the province of South Pyongan.
“There are about 80 women, and 40 men imprisoned in the county labour training camp,” she said.
“About 30 men and women were imprisoned due to divorce decrees, and the women’s sentences were longer.”