False eyelashes and wigs valued at more than $165 million were exported from North Korea and then sold to the West as “made in China” last year.
False eyelashes – known colloquially as “falsies” – and wigs made up 60% of North Korea’s declared exports to China in 2023, bringing in $167 million of foreign cash into the Hermit Kingdom.
The country exported more than 1,600 tons of falsies alone, a Reuters investigation found.
The discovery raised eyebrows in the West, which imposes harsh sanctions against North Korea due to its nuclear program, resulting in bans on trading coal, textiles and oil, among other items.
The U.S. State Department estimates that the totalitarian government seizes up to 90% of its citizens’ income garnered from foreign exports, leaving many to live in poverty.
The eyelash and hair trade is assumed to generate millions each month for Kim Jong Un’s regime, although the exact total is unknown, according to sanctions lawyer Shin Tong-chan and other international trade experts.
REUTERS
The hair trade, which includes eyelashes, is not sanctioned, meaning North Korea can freely trade the products with China without breaking 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, said the report, citing 15 sources in the eyelash industry.
Afterward, the products are shipped to the West, Japan and South Korea, eight people directly involved with the trade told the outlet.
North Korean exports to China nearly doubled in 2023 after the hard years of the pandemic, when the DPRK tightly shut its borders. In 2019, right before the pandemic, the country made less off eyelashes and other hair products, only bringing in $31.1 million.
The two Asian countries maintain their trade is legal and any suggestion that it violates UN sanctions is “completely without foundation.”
A spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Beijing and Pyongyang “are friendly neighbors” and that “normal cooperation between the two countries that is lawful and compliant should not be exaggerated.”
However, the US has further sanctions against North Korea, including sanctioning any company whose sales fund Kim’s regime.
The US does face troubles enforcing those sanctions unilaterally on foreign businesses whose primary clients are not American, two international sanctions lawyers told Reuters.
A US Treasury spokesperson said it “actively enforces the range of our broad North Korea sanctions authorities against both US and foreign firms” and would “continue to aggressively target any revenue generation efforts” by Pyongyang.
In 2019, the Treasury Department sued e.l.f. Cosmetics for nearly $1 million over allegations it was inadvertently selling false eyelashes that contained materials from North Korea.