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In North Korea, it is customary to bribe elites with gifts on key anniversaries, including the birthdays of late leaders Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-un, to secure loyalty to the Kim dynasty. Photo: Reuters

Kim Jong-un gives party officials South Korean cosmetics as New Year gifts: report

  • The North Korean leader has given out 1,000 sets despite an official ban on products from the South
  • Such cosmetics are much more popular in the hermit kingdom than similar items produced locally or imported from China
North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un has handed out South Korea-made cosmetics to party officials as a New Year’s gift despite the hermit kingdom’s official ban on products from the South, a news report said Wednesday.
The North has recently engaged in a diplomatic thaw with the South, while it attempts to negotiate its way out international sanctions imposed due to its nuclear and weapons development programmes.
The Chosun daily, citing a source, said financial officials from the North’s ruling party bought 1,000 sets of South Korean cosmetics at Yanbian Korea autonomous prefecture in China’s northeastern province of Jilin in November.

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They paid in dollar bills for the cosmetics, which were given to officials of the ruling party’s (decision-making) Central Committee as New Year gifts from Kim, the source was quoted as saying.

The transaction became known when these rare gifts started being sold at North Korean marketplaces by the beneficiaries’ families, according to the report.

In North Korea, it is customary to bribe elites with gifts on key anniversaries, including the birthdays of late leaders Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il, to secure loyalty to the Kim dynasty.

Gifts include drinks, candies, beef and pork, and wrist watches. Kim Jong-un reportedly gave each of his 100 military generals a Swiss-made watch in May 2016 at a Workers Party congress.

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North Korea has its own top cosmetic brands, such as Unhasu, but South Korean products are much more popular among the rich and powerful, according to defectors from the North.

“South Korean cosmetics sell [at a price] three times higher than Chinese products there as North Koreans think the South’s products are better in quality and fit their skins better,” Kim Yong-hwa, a defector now living in the South, told the South China Morning Post.

“South Korean products are officially banned in the North but they are available at marketplaces if you have the means. Consumers remove the labels immediately after buying the goods from merchants who usually hide the products under cover,” he said.

“South Korean cosmetics are also quite popular as wedding gifts from the groom to the bride.’

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Kim flouts ban and buys gifts made in South Korea
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