Mick Hartley

It's a dynamic cultural and economic powerhouse, right next to the most benighted and repressed nation in the world: of course the South Korean influence will get to the North one way or another. TV and films are banned, with the threat of years in a labour camp, or even execution. Now it's….cosmetics:

North Korean women are now sacrificing basic necessities to acquire South Korean cosmetics, once accessible only to the wealthy elite….

Among middle-aged North Korean women with stable finances, owning South Korean cosmetics has become both an aspirational goal and a status symbol. Despite their high cost—a basic skin and lotion set sells for 70,000-100,000 North Korean won (equivalent to 10 kilograms of rice)—women are willingly reducing household expenses to afford these products.

The cultural shift is notable. Previously, women feared displaying South Korean cosmetics due to potential government crackdowns. Now, proud owners place their dressing tables in private rooms where they can discreetly showcase their prized possessions to trusted friends.

“Women are cutting back on essentials like firewood and food to save for these products,” the source explained. “There’s a new conversation about self-care, where women who previously focused solely on family needs now express desires to care for themselves.”

While wealthy North Koreans have always used South Korean cosmetics, their use has expanded to women with modest but stable incomes. The luxury brand Sulwhasoo has become particularly coveted, with ownership of at least one product becoming “a standard for living as a proper woman.”

This trend suggests South Korean cosmetics have transcended their role as wealth indicators to become important tools for personal empowerment and self-esteem among North Korean women.

It used to be the South Korean Choco Pies that the North Koreans loved. Given out to workers at the long-defunct Kaesong industrial complex, and later sent over in balloons, they were much preferred to the cheap and nasty North Korean versions – to the extent that the alarmed Pyongyang authorities claimed the pies were contaminated and must at all costs be avoided. I imagine we'll soon be hearing propaganda about the contamination of these South Korean cosmetics, threatening the purity of North Korean women. It's always about contamination of the North Korean people/system by nasty foreign influences.