By Via Ampontan comes this photo essay in Foreign Policy magazine of North Korea which the photographer dubs the Land of No Smiles:
Renowned documentary photographer Tomas van Houtryve entered North Korea by posing as a businessman looking to open a chocolate factory. Despite 24-hour surveillance by North Korean minders, he took arresting photographs of Pyongyang and its people—images rarely captured and even more rarely distributed in the West. They show stark glimmers of everyday life in the world’s last gulag. [Foreign Policy]
Here is a picture from the photo essay I found of most interest:
EMERGENCY CAPITALISM: Two women work on an assembly line, packaging shirts by the American brand K-Swiss. “I imagine it’s illegal,” van Houtryve says. In Kaesong, the special economic zone on the southern border, South Korean companies hire North Korean workers at wages of $50 a month. The North Korean government allowed the zone’s creation after its near economic collapse and failure to prevent mass famine in the 1990s.
I wonder if K-Swiss knows that their apparel is being manufactured by North Korean workers that are reportedly forced to work shifts of up to 24 hours? Plus the proceeds from the complex are nearly all used to fund the Kim Jong-il regime that continues to threaten the United States plus hold two American citizens hostage. K-Swiss by default would be aiding such behavior if they are doing business with North Korea.
I have sent an e-mail to K-Swiss so hopefully they respond because I would like to know if the shirts are counterfeits or actually produced under contract by K-Swiss? Hopefully they respond.
11:41 am on April 25th, 2009 1
It's possible that they are knockoffs, as well. If you skim their website, the shirt in picture does not appear anywhere (although it may just be an item from last season or next season).
12:16 pm on April 25th, 2009 2
If those are real (they probably are fakes), my guess would be that K-Swiss knows, but they don't care because it is cheap and the general public doesn't know about it. If this story blows up, they could "discover" this horrible thing is going on and shut down their operations in the DPRK.
2:21 pm on April 25th, 2009 3
Hopefully they respond to my e-mail so we will know whether these are knock offs or not. If they are counterfeits, K-Swiss should contact the South Korean companies running the Kaesong Complex to quit manufacturing them or face a lawsuit.
11:32 pm on April 25th, 2009 4
It has long been rumored that North Korea manufactures and ships goods to China, which are then repackaged as made in China and exported.
12:18 am on April 26th, 2009 5
Stop the presses, GI!
What exactly do you think K-Swiss is going to do? Or CAN do?
Rolex, Coach, Sony, Microsoft, etc. won't even kindly ask USFK to give the lawful order for GIs to quit breaking American law, Korean law and the UCMJ by buying, distributing and importing (at taxpayer expense), counterfeit goods openly sold in public view in front of every American military base in Korea.
If these companies made even the slightest stink, USFK would trip all over themselves to make the counterfeit product sales go (slightly) underground to show they are being "tough on international copyright violations and the terrorists funded by them" or whatever nonsense has been dreamed up this week to focus attention away from more serious issues.
Expect to get an e-mail that says, "As we take allegations of counterfeiting seriously, we are currently looking into this situation to determine the best course of action."
And… then… nothing.
Then again, the products could be absolutely legitimate… as many things such as this are made in South Korea… and I could certainly see a South Korean company saving over a million won per worker per month to subcontract to Kaesong.
Koreans are crafty that way.
8:22 am on April 26th, 2009 6
CH, Kaesong is managed by South Korean companies and they are the ones ordering these North Korean workers to make counterfeit products if there counterfeits to begin with. K-Swiss would be able to do something about the South Korean companies allowing their products to be counterfeited.
1:10 pm on April 26th, 2009 7
GI,
"K-Swiss would be able to do something about the South Korean companies allowing their products to be counterfeited."
I beg you to tell me what that "something" is.
Once again, major companies with teams of Washington lobbyists who publicly scream about their products being counterfeited can't or won't get military leadership to enforce the UCMJ. That requires little investigation or effort.
Come to think of it, America can't even get other counterfeit products to stop being manufactured in North Korea… things like, oh, I don't know… hundred dollar bills. And we have a whole fleet of stealth bombers and cruise missiles.
5:31 pm on April 26th, 2009 8
It is possible that these garments are being made under licence to a SK company for regional distribution only.
1:32 am on June 19th, 2009 9
I'm sure K Swiss management knows very well where their sewing contractors make their shirts! They know, and they are more than happy to have a $ 50 a month workforce that works – assuming a 12 hour day and a 6 day week – 288 hours a month.
7:58 pm on August 28th, 2011 10
All their products are made there. they have a California office. The only sneaker actually made in America are Nu Balance.
9:40 pm on August 28th, 2011 11
GI Korea, you said “I wonder in K-Swiss knows”. If these shirts are not knockoffs please give me a break, of course they know. They may have enough dummy corporations or whatever to be able to plausibly deny knowledge but I’m sure they know but don’t care. They only care about the bottom line.