North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un is known for his intense crackdowns on its citizens in everyday life and now a popular food item has been banned.

According to reports, Kim has banned North Koreans from eating hotdogs as part of a crackdown on Western culture slowly oozing its way into the hermit nation.

The hotdog has grown in popularity in South Korea, and Kim has sinced declared that serving sausages is now an act of treason against North Korea.

It is claimed that people caught cooking or selling hotdogs could find themselves arrested and sentenced to hard labour in their infamous labour camps.

Hotdogs aren’t the only food to be the subject of a brutal crackdown.

No more hotdogs for North Koreans. Photo / 123RF

Kim has also forbidden the sale of budae-jjigae, a South Korean-American fusion dish made from an umami-rich broth, Korean hot pepper paste, flakes, kimchi, and American Spam, beans, and sausage.

The hotpot dish, which means “army base stew”, contains hotdog meat or spam which has been banned in the North.

The fusion dish appears to have crossed the border into North Korea around 2017, more than 50 years after its creation in the South.

Budae-jjigae was created in the 1950s when US soldiers in the region discarded meat. South Koreans used the meat to create stews.

Budae Jjigae or Budaejjigae, also known as army stew, is a popular Korean hot pot food style. Photo / Casiana Malaia, Getty Images

According to Radio Free Asia, North Korea has also banned steamed rice cakes tteokbokki which is a popular street food in the South.

Food isn’t the only thing the hermit nation is cracking down on. Reports emerged in December that claim people who get divorced in North Korea are facing one to six months in labour camps for their “crimes”.

Divorce is considered an anti-socialist act and anyone who wishes to divorce needs the Government to sign off on any requests.

According to RFA, a divorced woman claimed she served three months of labour and said that women receive harsher sentences than the men.

- NZ Herald