How North Korean eyelashes make their way to the West

STORY: Where are your false eyelashes really coming from?

Despite the 'Made in China' label - they may be coming from neighboring North Korea.

Reuters spoke to people working in the eyelash industry, trade lawyers and experts on North Korea’s economy, who described a system in which China-based firms import semi-finished products from North Korea which are then completed and re-packaged as Chinese.

The lashes are then exported from China and make their way to the West, Japan and South Korea.

This system gives Kim Jong Un’s regime a way to skirt international sanctions - providing a vital source of foreign currency.

This is Pingdu, China - also known as the ‘eyelash capital of the world.’

Wang Tingting’s family owns Monsheery, a Pingdu-based eyelash factory.

About 80% of eyelash factories here purchase or process false eyelash raw materials and semi-finished products from North Korea, according to a 2023 estimate published by Kali, a Chinese manufacturer of eyelash boxes.

Monsheery is one of them.

TINGTING: "The quality of the North Korean products is much better than that of our domestic ones, but the delivery is just too slow."

North Korea has long been a major exporter of hair products like wigs and false lashes, but exports tumbled during the COVID-19 pandemic.

TINGTING: "Initially, it was about the ships, either they were detained or couldn’t dock. After being detained, when they finally arrived in China, they get held up again. It's always like this, who can wait for them to be detained constantly? We really want to use (the lashes), as they're cheap and good quality, so why wouldn’t we?"

After Pyongyang re-opened its borders in 2023, Chinese customs data shows North Korea’s exports to China more than doubled - with wigs, eyelashes and beards comprising nearly 60% of it.

In total, these exports were worth around $167 million in 2023 - up from $31 million in 2019.

Since 2006, the U.N. Security Council has tried to stall Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program through sanctions.

That's restricted North Korea's ability to trade products like coal, textiles and oil.

But there's no direct ban on hair products.

So, trading false eyelashes from North Korea doesn't necessarily violate international law, according to three sanctions experts who spoke to Reuters.

The United States has separately expanded measures against North Korea - which include sanctions on any company stocking or selling products whose sales fund the Kim regime; A restriction that also applies to non-American firms using the U.S. dollar.

Here’s Shin Tong-Chan, a South Korean lawyer specializing in economic sanctions.

TONG-CHAN: “If you ignore the widely known fact and say it is alright to import the products and use them as they were labeled as ‘made in China,’ this can be a very risky attitude that can violate U.S. sanctions.”

Seoul-based business man Johny Lee imports lashes which he says are made in North Korea and packaged in China.

When asked about the legal risks, he said he wasn't selling sophisticated technology.

LEE: “They (North Korean workers) are just trying to make a living there. The money they make might go into developing missiles, but only if the business is happening in a big scale.”

The U.S. State Department and international experts estimate that North Korea seizes up to 90% of foreign income generated by its citizens, many of whom live in poverty.

Reuters was unable to determine how much of the revenue from eyelash sales flowed back to Kim’s government, or how it was used.