North Korean soldier who defected has been granted Choco Pies for life — a snack Kim Jong Un hates

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails

Sign up to our free breaking news emails

Please enter a valid email address

Please enter a valid email address

SIGN UP

I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice

A North Korean soldier who embarked on a dramatic defection across the Demilitarised Zone last month has been promised a lifetime supply of Choco Pies, The Korea Herald reported this week.

The soldier, who has been identified by his family name "Oh," reportedly asked for the snack when he woke up in hospital after being shot during his defection.

Orion, the South Korean manufacturer of the snack since 1974, announced they would give Oh a lifetime supply of the treat, as long as he stayed in South Korea.

The company also sent 100 boxes to his hospital room, though he is yet to recover enough to be able to eat them.

An official from Orion said, “We sent the choco pies as a welcoming present to Oh, who came to Korea after going through hardship. It was not an act for publicity.”

North Korea essentially banned Choco Pies in 2014.

For years the treats had been making their way on to the North Korean black market — where they sold for up to $10 — via the Kaesong Industrial Complex. The complex was a joint initiative by the two governments allowing South Korean business to operate across the border.

At one point 52,000 North Koreans were employed there, earning around $100 a month, but South Korean businesses were forbidden for compensating overtime with cash. Instead they often gave out Choco Pies — around a dozen a day for each employee that could then be shared with friends and family, or sold.

In 2010, nearly 2.5 million Choco Pies were being sold on the black market each month, according to South Korea's Chosun Ilbo.

Likely worried about the popularity of what was essentially a delicious piece of South Korean propaganda, the North Korean government launched a propaganda campaign of its own telling citizens Choco Pies are harmful to the body, before implementing the outright ban at Kaesong.

Shortly after the 2014 ban, South Korean activists floated 10,000 Choco Pies over the border.

History professor Andrei Lankov wrote in his book, "The Real North Korea: Life and Politics in the Failed Stalinist Utopia that the Choco Pie," that the Choco Pie" symbolises South Korea's prosperity, sophistication and progress. Like canned beer in the Soviet Union of my youth, [the Choco Pie] shows that the surrounding world is rich and full of wonders — gastronomical and otherwise."

Balloons are usually used to send more traditional types of propaganda, such as pamphlets and USBs, into North Korea.

Read more:

• May tackles new Brexit Rebellion
• Philip Hammond and Mark Carney are in China to secure £1 billion of trade deals
• Facebook admits that social media can be bad for you

Read the original article on Business Insider UK. © 2017. Follow Business Insider UK on Twitter.