Mick Hartley

They became an in-demand icon of the delights of South Korea after they were given out to workers at the Kaesong Industrial Complex. After the Complex closed down in April, North Korea started producing its own inferior copies. And now:

North Korean authorities are spreading rumors that South Korean-made Choco Pies are harmful to the body, an inside source has reported.

The rumor surfaced as soon demand grew for the popular chocolate treat, and was initiated in order to "avoid ideological unrest," the source from Yangkang Province told Daily NK on the 28th.

“Even though the Kaseong Industrial Complex has started up again, the only Choco Pies in the markets are North Korean imitations. Traders baulk at selling the South Korean kind, as the rumor has spread that, ‘South Korean authorities have added weird substances,’” the source conveyed.

Security agents tasked with cracking down on the markets are reportedly saying, “The South Chosun puppets intend to shake our national defense. They are spying and scheming,” and “If the products from the ‘neighborhood downstairs’ are enjoyed unconditionally, the ideology of the people could wither at any moment.”

“These kinds of rumors and market crackdowns have resulted in the disappearance of the once-abundant South Korean Choco Pies,” explained the source.

It's that impure capitalist wind again – this time made flesh. Or, rather, made chocolate.

It's not just the pies that are supposed to be contaminated:

Rumors have also emerged regarding South Korea’s psychological warfare tactic of sending mass leaflets into the North; “They have planted bombs, so do not touch the leaflets. You have to use a stick (to move them),” and “They have cancer causing agents, so don’t go right up to them or your body will suffer.”

North Korean citizens have similarly been warned against foreign tourists from places like China, whose food “contains material that is harmful to our style of socialism.”

The most recent leaflets to have been sent over concern the illicit sexual activities of Ri Sol-ju, Kim Jong-un's fragrant young wife. Much to the North's fury. The mention of Chinese food, meanwhile, refers back very possibly to the recently highlighted case of Chinese tourists being branded as boorish and insensitive for throwing sweets out of tour bus windows to North Korean children on the street. 

The theme of contamination from impure foreign sources is, of course, more usually associated with the far right: another sign of the true nature of the Kim dynastic regime, aka the Baekdu bloodline. But fewer and fewer people are fooled:

“At first the authorities target the more naive portion of the population. But in border areas and the like, the traders are sensitive to the government and they don’t believe such groundless rumors. The people have heard of foreign products and food before, and can remember eating it themselves. The authorities are spreading lies but the number of people falling for it is decreasing.”