How North Korean eyelashes make their way to the West
Millions of dollars in sales of North Korean false eyelashes - marketed in beauty stores around the world as "made in China" - helped drive a recovery in the secretive state's exports last year. - REUTERS
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00:00 Where are your false eyelashes really coming from?
00:05 Despite the "Made in China" label, they may be coming from neighboring North Korea.
00:11 Reuters spoke to people working in the eyelash industry, trade lawyers and experts on North
00:16 Korea's economy, who described a system in which China-based firms import semi-finished
00:22 products from North Korea, which are then completed and repackaged as Chinese.
00:28 The lashes are then exported from China and make their way to the West, Japan and South
00:33 Korea.
00:35 This system gives Kim Jong-un's regime a way to skirt international sanctions, providing
00:40 a vital source of foreign currency.
00:44 This is Pingdu, China, also known as the eyelash capital of the world.
00:50 Wang Tingting's family owns Manshiri, a Pingdu-based eyelash factory.
00:55 About 80 percent of eyelash factories here purchase or process false eyelash raw materials
01:02 and semi-finished products from North Korea, according to a 2023 estimate published by
01:07 KALI, a Chinese manufacturer of eyelash boxes.
01:11 Manshiri is one of them.
01:13 The quality of the North Korean products is much better than that of our domestic ones,
01:18 but the delivery is just too slow.
01:21 North Korea has long been a major exporter of hair products like wigs and false lashes,
01:27 but exports tumbled during the COVID-19 pandemic.
01:31 "Initially, it was about the ships.
01:34 Either they were detained or couldn't dock.
01:40 After being detained, when they finally arrived in China, they get held up again."
01:50 After Pyongyang reopened its borders in 2023, Chinese customs data shows North Korea's exports
01:56 to China more than doubled, with wigs, eyelashes and beards compromising nearly 60 percent
02:03 of it.
02:05 In total, these exports were worth around $167 million in 2023, up from $31 million
02:14 in 2019.
02:17 Since 2006, the UN Security Council has tried to stall Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program
02:23 through sanctions.
02:27 That's restricted North Korea's ability to trade products like coals, textiles and oil.
02:33 But there's no direct ban on hair products.
02:36 So trading false eyelashes from North Korea doesn't necessarily violate international
02:42 law, according to three sanctions experts who spoke to Reuters.
02:46 The United States has separately expanded measures against North Korea, which include
02:51 sanctions on any company stocking or selling products whose sales fund the Kim regime,
02:57 a restriction that also applies to non-American firms using the U.S. dollar.
03:03 Here's Shing-Tong Chan, a South Korean lawyer specializing in economic sanctions.
03:08 "If you ignore the widely known fact and say it is alright to import the products and use
03:14 them as they were labeled as 'made in China,' this can be a very risky attitude that can
03:19 violate U.S. sanctions."
03:28 Seoul-based businessman Johnny Lee imports lashes, which he says are made in North Korea
03:33 and packaged in China.
03:36 When asked about the legal risks, he said he wasn't selling sophisticated technology.
03:41 "The North Korean workers are just trying to make a living there.
03:44 The money they make might go into developing missiles, but only if the business is happening
03:48 in a big scale."
03:50 The U.S. State Department and international experts estimate that North Korea seizes up
03:56 to 90 percent of foreign income generated by its citizens, many of whom live in poverty.
04:03 Reuters was unable to determine how much of the revenue from eyelash sales flowed back
04:09 to Kim's government, or how it was used.