Korean Central Television aired a 2010 episode of Alan Titchmarsh's Garden Secrets, where footage of the British broadcaster was obscured from the waist down as he knelt in a garden bed tending to plants.

Jeans are seen as a symbol of Western imperialism and are banned under the North Korean regime.

Titchmarsh told the BBC that the news had given him "a bit of street cred".

"It's taken me to reach the age of 74 to be regarded in the same sort of breath as Elvis Presley, Tom Jones, Rod Stewart.

"You know, wearing trousers that are generally considered by those of us of a sensitive disposition to be rather too tight."

He said his jeans were not too tight but were not acceptable in North Korea.

"I've never seen myself as a dangerous subversive imperialist. I'm generally regarded as rather cosy and pretty harmless, so actually, it's given me a bit of street cred, really, hasn't it?"

Jeans have been prohibited since the 1990s when leader Kim Jong-il declared them to be a symbol of Western, and specifically US, imperialism, which had no place in a socialist state, according to Seoul-based outlet NK News.

Australian Associated Press