North Korea exported nearly 37 metric tons of wigs, fake beards and eyelashes to China in Dec. 2022, making up over half of the country’s total exports in the strongest-ever month for one of the DPRK’s more niche industries. 

According to Chinese customs data, the hair exports were worth nearly $9 million. By comparison, the sum of all the DPRK’s hair exports between 2017, when China began publishing customs statistics, and last November was $6.8 million.

The unusual spike in fake hair exports easily eclipsed the DPRK’s usual top commodities such as ferro-silicon, tungsten