North Korea sells 98% of its exports to China, but why is it hard to see them in the market?
More than 90% of North Korea's exports eventually flow to China, a proportion that is rare in global international trade.
But interestingly, the usual time to go to supermarkets, shopping, hardly see objects marked "made in North Korea", many people don't even know that North Korea is still selling goods to China, let alone know what it is selling.
No one may believe it, but it is wigs and other products that hold up half of North Korea's exports, which account for more than half of North Korea's total exports and are the real main export force.
North Korea's wigs can gain a firm foothold in the market. The core lies in two advantages. On the one hand, the raw materials are good. The hair of local women is generally black, bright and thick, and is long enough, so they are naturally suitable for making high-quality wigs.
On the other hand, the cost of manpower is low, the same does a high-end haircut, elsewhere the cost is much higher, in North Korea can save most of it.
Moreover, the local hair is mostly hand-woven, and the women are hand-made and made with a solid sense of quality.
These wigs are shipped out of North Korea, and most of them first go to the wig industry concentration in China. After deep processing, packaging change, and then new brand labels are labeled and sold all over the world. Even if ordinary people use them, they will never think that the source is North Korea.
Now more interestingly, some companies also combine AI and this kind of hand-made, use technology to measure customer head data, then pass to the North Korean factories to let workers do it manually, both guaranteeing accuracy and controlling the cost, this business is quite smart.
Besides wigs, minerals are also an important category of North Korea's exports.
The local mineral resources are not small, such as coal, iron ore, these are rich in minerals, and the quality is recognized by industrial enterprises.
After these minerals were shipped to China, they were basically sent directly to factories in the northeast and northern China, either for power generation or for steel milling.
The whole process is very direct. When the raw materials enter the factory, they come out as finished products such as steel bars and building materials. No one will specifically mark where the raw materials come from.
The ordinary people are exposed to processed products, and they will not naturally be associated with North Korean minerals.
However, due to technical constraints, local minerals cannot be processed in depth, they can only sell raw minerals, and the profit space is actually limited, coupled with some international restrictions, this part of the export has not been so prosperous in the past few years.
Some export commodities are more "invisible", such as electricity.
Many people may find it strange that China's own electricity supply is quite sufficient, so why it still buys electricity from North Korea.
This is actually forced by reality, North Korea has an urgent need for foreign exchange, electricity, although it is also tense, but sold it in part, can replace the urgently needed crude oil, livelihoods and necessary goods.
This electricity mainly comes from hydropower stations jointly operated by China and North Korea, and is directly transmitted to the power grid in northeast China, mostly for factory production.
Electricity is invisible and intangible. Even if it uses electricity transmitted from North Korea, ordinary people don't feel it at all, let alone ask where the electricity comes from.
High-end agricultural products are also part of exports, such as the gorilla in the city, the pineapple in the deep mountains, and the imperial crustaceans of the east coast, these things are of good quality, the long growth cycle of gorilla, the pineapple and the imperial crustaceans are natural treasures.
However, they are not positioned in the ordinary consumer market. They either enter high-end health product processing factories or serve tables in high-end restaurants. The prices are not at the level that ordinary people will consume daily. Most people don't have access to them at all, so naturally they don't understand them.
Under the influence of international sanctions, North Korea has narrow foreign trade channels and can only write in limited space.
Relying on its own resources and human advantages, specializing in the low threshold of hair, minerals and stable demand, avoiding the shortcomings of high-end manufacturing.
Selling products to China not only solves the sales problem, but also completes value upgrading through China's industrial chain, circumventing many restrictions.
Although this trade model is not diverse enough, it is indeed the safest way to survive under realistic conditions. It plays the only card in hand quite pragmatically.
In the final analysis, North Korea's export trade is a precise "dislocation competition". It does not compete with others for technology and brand, and specializes in links in the industrial chain that others are unwilling to or unable to do.
These invisible commodities are not only an important source of local foreign exchange, but also a very special link in the global industrial chain division of labor.
More than 90% of North Korea's exports eventually flow to China, a proportion that is rare in global international trade.
But interestingly, the usual time to go to supermarkets, shopping, hardly see objects marked "made in North Korea", many people don't even know that North Korea is still selling goods to China, let alone know what it is selling.
No one may believe it, but it is wigs and other products that hold up half of North Korea's exports, which account for more than half of North Korea's total exports and are the real main export force.
North Korea's wigs can gain a firm foothold in the market. The core lies in two advantages. On the one hand, the raw materials are good. The hair of local women is generally black, bright and thick, and is long enough, so they are naturally suitable for making high-quality wigs.
On the other hand, the cost of manpower is low, the same does a high-end haircut, elsewhere the cost is much higher, in North Korea can save most of it.
Moreover, the local hair is mostly hand-woven, and the women are hand-made and made with a solid sense of quality.
These wigs are shipped out of North Korea, and most of them first go to the wig industry concentration in China. After deep processing, packaging change, and then new brand labels are labeled and sold all over the world. Even if ordinary people use them, they will never think that the source is North Korea.
Now more interestingly, some companies also combine AI and this kind of hand-made, use technology to measure customer head data, then pass to the North Korean factories to let workers do it manually, both guaranteeing accuracy and controlling the cost, this business is quite smart.
Besides wigs, minerals are also an important category of North Korea's exports.
The local mineral resources are not small, such as coal, iron ore, these are rich in minerals, and the quality is recognized by industrial enterprises.
After these minerals were shipped to China, they were basically sent directly to factories in the northeast and northern China, either for power generation or for steel milling.
The whole process is very direct. When the raw materials enter the factory, they come out as finished products such as steel bars and building materials. No one will specifically mark where the raw materials come from.
The ordinary people are exposed to processed products, and they will not naturally be associated with North Korean minerals.
However, due to technical constraints, local minerals cannot be processed in depth, they can only sell raw minerals, and the profit space is actually limited, coupled with some international restrictions, this part of the export has not been so prosperous in the past few years.
Some export commodities are more "invisible", such as electricity.
Many people may find it strange that China's own electricity supply is quite sufficient, so why it still buys electricity from North Korea.
This is actually forced by reality, North Korea has an urgent need for foreign exchange, electricity, although it is also tense, but sold it in part, can replace the urgently needed crude oil, livelihoods and necessary goods.
This electricity mainly comes from hydropower stations jointly operated by China and North Korea, and is directly transmitted to the power grid in northeast China, mostly for factory production.
Electricity is invisible and intangible. Even if it uses electricity transmitted from North Korea, ordinary people don't feel it at all, let alone ask where the electricity comes from.
High-end agricultural products are also part of exports, such as the gorilla in the city, the pineapple in the deep mountains, and the imperial crustaceans of the east coast, these things are of good quality, the long growth cycle of gorilla, the pineapple and the imperial crustaceans are natural treasures.
However, they are not positioned in the ordinary consumer market. They either enter high-end health product processing factories or serve tables in high-end restaurants. The prices are not at the level that ordinary people will consume daily. Most people don't have access to them at all, so naturally they don't understand them.
Under the influence of international sanctions, North Korea has narrow foreign trade channels and can only write in limited space.
Relying on its own resources and human advantages, specializing in the low threshold of hair, minerals and stable demand, avoiding the shortcomings of high-end manufacturing.
Selling products to China not only solves the sales problem, but also completes value upgrading through China's industrial chain, circumventing many restrictions.
Although this trade model is not diverse enough, it is indeed the safest way to survive under realistic conditions. It plays the only card in hand quite pragmatically.
In the final analysis, North Korea's export trade is a precise "dislocation competition". It does not compete with others for technology and brand, and specializes in links in the industrial chain that others are unwilling to or unable to do.
These invisible commodities are not only an important source of local foreign exchange, but also a very special link in the global industrial chain division of labor.