According to the Murdoch Sun-Times (a more or less identical story has appeared in both) North Korea has been getting around Trump’s sanctions by exporting goods to China which are then stamped ‘made in China’ and then further exported. So far so unremarkable.
The report is simply based on a story that most likely emerged from US intelligence which is probably why it contains an unexplained mystery. According to the Sun-Times report the exports include false eyelashes and fake beards to Belgium and France. False eyelashes are perhaps understandable as a fashion item worn by some. It is rather more difficult to understand what the European requirement for fake beards is and, if there is actually one, why these are not manufactured in Europe.
Kim Jong-Un who for better or worse is clearly not dead, has never been known to wear a beard, false or otherwise.
Sun-Times report 13th May
North Korea is secretly exporting thousands of tonnes of fake beards and eyelashes as well as hundreds of accordions to Europe via China in a successful effort to evade sanctions.
International sanctions ban the import of North Korean wigs, false beards, eyebrows and eyelashes, along with other “luxury goods”. Americans are banned from doing any business whatsoever with Pyongyang. Last year the US Treasury Department fined an American company that had unwittingly imported North Korean false eyelashes via China.
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