Feature: Move over Chanel: North Korea's 'raccoon eye makers' get state push

Amorepacific

08/08/2019 01:30

By Minwoo Park
    SEOUL, Aug 8 (Reuters) - North Korea is encouraging its
beauty-conscious middle class women to choose domestic cosmetics
over foreign brands in an effort to boost self-reliance as
international sanctions deepen.
    Promoting home-grown beauty has been a political strategy
since the days of state founder Kim Il Sung, but has become more
focused under his foreign-educated grandson, Kim Jong Un.
    The international popularity in recent years of South
Korea's K-beauty trend  - innovative cosmetic products with
natural ingredients such as ginseng and snail slime - has added
momentum, say defectors who fled the North and experts who study
the isolated state.
    But North Korea's push has yet to translate to a winning
formula, marred by quality issues and constraints in obtaining
foreign ingredients due to sanctions over its nuclear programme.
    Leader Kim Jong Un was once dismissive of domestic beauty
products.
    “Foreign eye liners or mascaras stay on even after get into
water, but domestic products make raccoon eyes even with just a
yawn," Kim said during his visit to a Pyongyang cosmetics
factory in 2015, according to the Japan-based Choson Sinbo
newspaper.
    But Kim has since visited cosmetics factories several times
with his wife to promote the products.
    Earlier this year, North Korea’s state-run television KRT
aired a video about Pyongyang Cosmetics Factory showing a woman
replacing Chanel products with domestic products instead.
    “Lots of foreign customers living in the state visit our
shop. Sheet mask, lipstick and cleansing products are best
sellers,” Yang Su Jong, a sales assistant at Pyongyang Cosmetics
Factory, told Reuters on a rare visit to the capital last year.
    Chanel, in response to Reuters' questions, said it did not
export products to North Korea and any items on sale there were
likely counterfeits or diverted products.

    FIRST LADY AND GIRL BAND
    North Korea has long regulated its citizens' appearance.
Hair dyeing, blue jeans and clothes with writing in English were
banned under Kim's father, Kim Jong Il, as the reclusive country
tried to keep western influences out.
    But that has changed since Kim came to power in 2011 and
began making public appearances with first lady Ri Sol Ju, a
former member of a pop orchestra. 
    Nam Sung-wook, a professor of North Korean studies at Korea
University, said the young first lady's short haircut and
colourful suits appealed to a desire for self-expression within
the constraints of North Korea's society.
    "There was no role for the first lady in Kim Jong Il's era,"
Nam said. "But the Kim Jong Un era gave rise to first lady Ri
Sol Ju, who furthered the regime's interest in cosmetics."
    Kang Na-ra is one North Korean defector who said she used to
buy South Korean cosmetics at private markets known as
jangmadang that are the backbone of the North's informal market
economy.
    "I really wanted to copy K-pop idol's make-up style when I
was in the North,” she said.
    Today women are encouraged to follow style trends set by the
first lady or the 'Moranbong' band, Pyongyang's all-female
answer to K-pop.
     "North Korea is such a tightly controlled society and a
style we can follow is very limited. Ri Sol Ju or Moranbong band
members are our only allowable role models," said the
21-year-old Kang who fled to the South in 2014 and now runs a
YouTube channel sharing tips on beauty and North Korean culture.

    NEW MARKET AND LIMITS
    Pyongyang Cosmetic Factory shipped its first batch of Unhasu
brand cosmetics to a new boutique in Moscow in May, Russian
media reported. 
    'Korean Care', another Russian cosmetics shop selling South
Korean products online, started importing North Korean beauty
products directly from Pyongyang last year. 
    The company, which targets Russian women and has over 10,000
customers, said the selling point for North Korean products was
their natural ingredients and minimal preservatives.
    “I am a fan of all kind of new cosmetics, and it was
especially interesting because it’s North Korean,” said
Margarita Kiselyova, 45, a Russian customer who bought aloe vera
moisturizer and anti-ageing cream. “Overall, I am satisfied with
the quality."
    However, Nam, the Korea University expert, and leading South
Korean cosmetics firm Amorepacific tested 64 North Korean
products and found quality issues in seven of them, including
traces of potential harmful ingredients methylparabens,
propylparabens, and talc. 
    Amorepacific told Reuters it did not have further details of
the tests. 
    Pyongyang Cosmetic Factory says its Unhasu line has received
quality assurance certification from the International
Organization for Standardization (ISO) and Russia-led Eurasian
Economic Union (EEU) but Reuters could not independently verify
those claims. 
    "Developing new cosmetics products requires supplies of new
materials and substances from overseas, but current U.N.
sanctions prohibit the North from importing chemicals, which
makes product development difficult,” Nam said. 
    Most North Koreans still prefer higher priced South Korean
products especially for gifts, said Kang Mi-jin, an economics
expert who regularly speaks with North Koreans for Daily NK, a
news website run by defectors.
    "Even if it’s hard to get, people try to buy South Korean
cosmetics for their fiancés as a wedding gift, since it is
regarded as the best and symbol of wealth," Kang Mi-jin said.

 (Reporting by Minwoo Park; Additional reporting by Yijin Kim in
SEOUL, Thomas Suen in PYONGYANG, Sarah White in PARIS, Anna
Rzhevkina in MOSCOW
Editing by Jack Kim and Lincoln Feast.)
 ((Minwoo.Park@thomsonreuters.com;))