INSIGHT-How North Korean eyelashes make their way to West as ‘made in China’

The processing and packaging of North Korean false eyelashes – openly conducted in neighbouring China, the country's largest trading partner – gives Kim Jong Un's regime a way to skirt international sanctions, providing a vital source of foreign currency. Reuters spoke to 20 people – including 15 in the eyelash industry, as well as 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 packaged as Chinese.