More than $165 million worth of false eyelashes and wigs were exported from North Korea and then sold to the West as “made in China” last year.
False eyelashes – known colloquially as “false” – and wigs make up 60% of North Korea’s declared exports to China in 2023, bringing $167 million in foreign cash into the Hermit Kingdom.
The country exported more than 1,600 tonnes of counterfeits alone, a Reuters investigation found.
The discovery has raised concerns in the West, which has imposed tough sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear program, resulting in trade bans on coal, textiles and oil, among other goods.
The US State Department estimates that totalitarian governments confiscate up to 90% of their citizens’ income earned from foreign exports, leaving many living in poverty.
The trade in eyelashes and hair is thought to generate millions every month for Kim Jong Un’s regime, although the exact amount is unknown, according to sanctions lawyer Shin Tong-chan and other international trade experts.
False eyelashes – known colloquially as “false” – and wigs make up 60% of North Korea’s declared exports to China in 2023, bringing in $167 million worth of products. The country exports more than 1,600 tonnes of fakes alone. Reuters
Trade in hair, including eyelashes, is not allowed, meaning North Korea can freely trade the product with China without violating international law, three sanctions experts told the outlet.
China imports semi-finished North Korean eyelashes and then slaps a “made in China” label on them after it completes and packages the products, the report said, citing 15 sources in the eyelash industry.
After that, the product was sent to the West, Japan and South Korea, eight people directly involved with the trade told the outlet.
North Korean exports to China will almost double in 2023 after the difficult years of the epidemic, when the DPRK tightly closed its borders. In 2019, just before the outbreak, the country produced less than eyelashes and other hair products, bringing in only $31.1 million.
The reason China imports eyelash materials from North Korea, and has since the early 2000s, is the country’s low labor costs and high-quality eyelashes. Reuters
The two Asian countries maintain their trade is legal and any suggestion that it violates UN sanctions is “absolutely baseless.”
A spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry said Beijing and Pyongyang “are friendly neighbors” and that “normal cooperation between the two legitimate and compliant countries should not be exaggerated.”
However, the US imposed further sanctions on North Korea, including blocking any company that finances sales to the Kim regime.
The US does have trouble enforcing the sanctions unilaterally on foreign businesses whose primary customers are not American, two international sanctions lawyers told Reuters.
The discovery has sparked concern among the West, which has imposed tough sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear program, leading to trade bans on coal, textiles and oil, among other goods. Reuters
A US Treasury spokesman said it was “actively enforcing our broad range of North Korea sanctions authorities against both US and foreign firms” and would “continue to aggressively target any revenue-generating efforts” by Pyongyang.
In 2019, the Treasury Department sued elf Cosmetics for nearly $1 million over claims it inadvertently sold false eyelashes containing ingredients from North Korea.
The cosmetics company found two suppliers using ingredients from the country during a “routine” audit and later determined they were “immaterial,” it said in a filing at the time.
The reason China imports eyelash materials from North Korea, and has since the early 2000s, is the country’s low labor costs and high-quality eyelashes.
North Korean workers can be paid a tenth of what their Chinese counterparts are paid for the same service.
China’s Pingdu – known as the “eyelash capital of the world” – gets 80% of its eyelash factory purchases from North Korea, Reuters found.
“The quality of North Korean products is much better,” said Wang Tingting, who owns a family-run business that exports products to the US, Brazil and Russia.
With Postal wire.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
