'Beauty is Freedom': the North Korean Millennials Wearing Makeup to Rebel against the State

CNN Style has launched a dedicated Beauty section. Read more Beauty stories here. Aspiring actress Nara Kang puts on a coral red lipstick and gently rubs orange blush onto her cheeks, the white glitter swept under her eyes sparkling as she tilts her head in the light. Kang would never have been able to do this back home in Chongjin, North Hamgyong Province. Kang now lives in Seoul, South Korea. The 22-year-old fled North Korea in 2015 to escape a regime that restricted her personal freedoms, from what she wore to how she tied her hair. Most people in Kang's hometown were only allowed to wear a light tint on their lips -- sometimes pink but never red -- and long hair had to be tied up neatly or braided, she says. Kang would walk through alleys instead of main roads to avoid encountering the "Gyuchaldae," North Korea's so-called fashion police.


According to two defectors CNN interviewed for this story, who left the regime between 2010 and 2015, wearing clothes perceived as "too Western" such as miniskirts, shirts with written English and tight jeans, can be subject to small fines, public humiliation or punishment -- though the rules vary in different regions. Depending on the alleged offense or the patrol unit, the defectors said some offenders were made to stand in the middle of a town's square and endure harsh criticism from officers. Others were ordered to perform hard labor. Nam Sung-wook, a professor of North Korean studies at Korea University. They may have been living in one of the world's most restrictive states, but Kang says she and other North Korean millennials still kept up with fashion trends outside the country. It's easy, she says, if you know where to look. Translated as "marketplace," Jangmadang is the name given to the local North Korean markets that sell everything from fruit, clothing and household products.


They started prospering during the great famine in the 1990s when people realized they couldn't depend on government rations. Many North Koreans still shop at these markets for daily necessities, but they are also the source of illegal products smuggled into the country. Foreign content, including movies, music videos, and soap operas, is copied onto USB drives, CDs or SD Cards in South Korea or China and smuggled into North Korea, according to the South Korean Unification Ministry. This is also a method that many human rights organizations use to send in information challenging the regime. Sokeel Park, South Korea country director of research and strategy for human rights group Liberty in North Korea. Joo Yang puts on a pearl necklace she designed in Seoul, South Korea. Before she fled North Korea in 2010, defector and now jewelry designer Joo Yang says she and her friends used to visit the Jangmadang markets to find USB sticks with films and popular music videos from South Korea.


At the market, Yang says female smugglers would talk in a distinct Seoul accent to attract the attention of young women who had already been exposed to South Korean culture. Sometimes merchants would take customers to their homes where there would be rooms full of clothes and cosmetics, according to Yang. South Korean cosmetics were two to three times more expensive than North Korean or Chinese-made products, she says. She had to pay two weeks' worth of rice to purchase a single mascara or lipstick from South Korea. The marketplace is so popular with millennials that they are referred as the "Jangmadang generation," says Park, who produced a documentary by the same name examining the lives of young North Koreans and their impact on society. The famine disrupted the schooling system, so many of the Jangmadang generation literally grew up shopping in the markets, and have a greater insight into capitalism than previous generations, he adds. Yang says she has seen the style of women in North Korea evolve based on the looks of popular K-dramas.


Park. He adds fashion and beauty trends extend beyond the surface, they signal an implicit change within the society. Despite the absence of internationally-recognized North Korean cosmetics brands, North Korea's state media KCNA claims its cosmetics industry is thriving. In November, Pyongyang hosted a national cosmetics show where "more than 137,000 beauty products" were presented, including "new soaps to help remove waste matter from skin and functional cosmetics (to help) blood circulation, beauty goods and anti-aging cosmetics" according to KCNA. Kim Jong Un is building on the legacy of his grandfather, North Korea's founder Kim Il Sung who created the country's first cosmetics factory in 1949. Kim Il Sung, who had previously used cosmetics to boost the morale of female soldiers in Manchuria during the battle with Japan, realized the power of beauty in changing people's minds early on. How did Kim Jong Un get his Mercedes-Benzes? The recent push to develop the domestic cosmetic industry comes amid deepening international sanctions, which have made it even more difficult for North Korea to import high-quality ingredients and products, according to Professor Nam.

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