China blocks searches for 'Fatty' Kim Jong-un nickname online

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is also known as Kim Fatty the Third in China. Photo / AP

China has blocked internet searches for "Kim Fatty the Third", a popular term that is used in China for North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

The term "Jin San Pang" failed to produce any results on Baidu, China's main search engine, or the country's hugely popular social networking platform, Sina Weibo.

China's army of internet censors have previously blocked searches for insulting names of the North Korean leader, including "Kim Pig the Third".

The Apple Daily, a pro-democracy newspaper based in Hong Kong and Taiwan, said the recent ban was enforced after officials from Kim's rogue regime asked Chinese officials to act.

The phrase Jin San Pang uses characters which roughly translates to 'Kim', 'three', and 'fat' - in reference to both his weight and his lineage as the third in the Kim dynasty.

Beijing and Pyongyang have been allies for decades, but many Chinese have grown concerned over Kim's increasingly aggressive testing of military hardware.

A Chinese foreign ministry official said at a regular press briefing on Wednesday that reports of the banning of the phrase Jin San Pang "didn't comply with facts", according to the Associated Press.

"The Chinese government stays committed to building a healthy and civilised environment of opinions," spokesman Geng Shuang added. "We disapprove of referring to the leader of any country with insulting and mocking remarks."

Reports in South Korea in March said that China has unblocked the term "Kim Pig the Third".

At the same time, other reports suggested that "Kim Fatty the Third" had been unblocked, after being censored on the Chinese Internet for about four years.

China's Internet is among the most heavily censored in the world. Foreign websites such as Facebook, Youtube and Twitter are blocked in China.