Chinese films and TV programs, led by a spy war TV series Qian Fu, or Lurk, have become a hot topic in North Korea, China Central Television (CCTV) reported Monday. Programs of this genre are rare in North Korea, and the stars have become popular in the isolated nation.

Lurk, a 2008 Chinese TV series, has been broadcast repeatedly in North Korea over the past few years, the CCTV report said.

The series depicts the tale of an undercover agent of the Communist Party of China, Yu Zecheng, portrayed by Sun Honglei, during the China's liberation war (1946 - 49).

"TV shows like Lurk, with a thrilling plot, are now extremely popular in North Korea," Lü Chao, director of the Korean Research Center at Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times.

"Almost everybody has watched the series and each time they meet with Chinese friends, they love to talk about the story and characters," he said.

It is a surprising turn in a country where hero worship is usually reserved for the Kim family. Experts pointed out that it is because of the similarities between the two countries and North Korea's strict censorship of imported cultural products.

"North Korea is very strict with imported cultural products, especially those from South Korea or the West," said Lü.

Cui Zhiying, director of the Korean Peninsula Research Center at Tongji University in Shanghai, echoed Lü, and said that consuming unsanctioned media from Western nations or South Korea remains taboo in North Korea.

Cui said North Korea is not only vigilant against Western and South Korean cultural products, but also selective when it comes to Chinese ones.

"North Korea prefers red-themed Chinese series, about the Communist Party of China's revolutionary campaign," said Cui.

In Lü Chao's opinion, while North Korea seems a relatively isolated country, it has been open to its Chinese neighbor in terms of cultural exchange. Lü said Chinese TV episodes are more welcomed because of the similarities between the two East Asian neighbors.

"During the 1970s, when the Chinese cultural market was like a desert, North Korean movies fulfilled Chinese audiences' needs."

TV shows and movies from China account for most of the cultural products imported from foreign countries to North Korea, according to the CCTV report.

Cui told the Global Times that "North Korean authorities are careful with what their youngsters might learn from the movies."