The defector, known only as Oh, is still in hospital after being shot as he made a daring escape from the hermit kingdom.

But on waking he is believed to have asked for the food Kim Jong-un hates so much he banned their sale – Wagon Wheels.

Wagon Wheels, or Choco Pies as they are known elsewhere in the world, were banned from North Korean shops after the imported chocolate and marshmallow snack became a symbol of capitalism in the country.

South Korean Choco Pie producer Orion said Oh could have as many of the snacks as he wanted so long as he stayed in the South.

An Orion spokesperson 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 of publicity.”

For a time the treats were made in a joint North-South factory known as the Kaesong Industrial Complex.

But as South Koreans were forbidden from paying North Korean employees for overtime, they instead subsidised their work with the popular snack.

Despite the ban, underground realtors still continued to sell them on the black market, fetching as much as £7.50 a piece. 

At their height as many as 2.5million Choco Pies were being sold in North Korea each month.

South Korea responded to the ban too – by sending 10,000 of the snack food over the border by balloon.

In his book, "The Real North Korea: Life and Politics in the Failed Stalinist Utopia”, History professor Andrei Lankov wrote the Choco Pie was a symbol of “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."