Secretive and Sanctioned: Fragrances in North Korea
North Korea is one of the most isolated nations today. Travel, as well as information and goods crossing its borders, are heavily controlled and limited. This makes obscure queries such as, "What scents do North Koreans like wearing?", or perhaps, "What fragrances do they produce domestically?" practically impossible to answer.
But it's worth trying.
IMPORTANT: This post does not directly link to any North Korean state media. Archived versions of original sources via the Wayback Machine are labeled as such. KCNA Watch, 38 North and the Facebook page 'North Korea Girls' link to original sources. Accessing North Korean state media websites may have legal consequences in your region. Please proceed with caution.
Approaches
Asking ChatGPT
This seemingly all-knowing system has been trained with any sorts of texts its creators could get their hands on. Surely, the bot knows something that could help me.
What can you tell me about perfumes made in North Korea?
ChatGPT's answer:
"As of my last knowledge update in January 2022, information about specific perfumes made in North Korea is quite limited due to the secretive nature of the country. North Korea is not known for being transparent about its products, and its perfume industry, if it exists, is not widely discussed on the international stage.
North Korea is primarily known for its focus on heavy industries, military development, and agriculture. While the country has some consumer goods production, information about specific brands or products, such as perfumes, is not readily available.
If there have been developments or changes since my last update, it would be a good idea to check recent sources, such as news articles, international trade reports, or official North Korean announcements. Keep in mind that obtaining accurate and up-to-date information about North Korean products can be challenging due to the limited access and controlled information flow from the country.
You may also want to consider reaching out to experts on North Korean affairs, fragrance enthusiasts, or individuals with specialized knowledge in international trade and commerce to see if they have any insights or updated information on the topic."
The information itself wasn't very insightful, but it gave me ideas for where to look. I might reach out sometime to academics that study North Korean consumerist habits, and I‘ll post about it if more comes to light.
For now, I took its advice and looked into what North Korea has to say.
North Korean State Media
KCNA Watch collects North Korean state publications for academic purposes. The search term "perfume" returns 168 results. Most of them are very brief texts claiming that certain factories produce perfumes, without elaborating on details such as scents. A few texts are also published by multiple sources, as seen below.
An issue with this platform is that it doesn't archive pictures that are included in articles. For this, I turn to the Wayback Machine.
The databases I have so far are good places to find which factories produce what and under what brands their products are sold, as well as flacon pictures.
South Korean Sources
Unification of the Korean peninsula is an official goal of the South Korean government (as it was for North Korea, too, until recently). This means that some aspects of North Korean life which are underreported abroad may be more of interest for their southern neighbours. Online media, TV shows and even K-Dramas reflect this.
As South Koreans don't really use Google, I turn to their local alternative Naver.
It was at this moment when I discovered that the word 'perfume' in Korean has a homonym meaning 'nostalgia', which made it difficult to navigate Korean-language sources and determine what was relevant for me. Even Google Translate seemed to struggle with this.
향수 (hyangsu) = Perfume
Brands
Listed north to south (but still North)
Pomhyanggi - 봄향기
Produced in the Sinuiju Cosmetics Factory.
All of the perfumes in the picture are conveniently called "Perfume". This is not exclusive to Pomhyanggi, as I came to find out. If we take the packaging as this literal, the box with a rose on the far left, and the one placed next to it depicting various fruit, could be indicators of perfume notes.
Here's something you don't see every day: A North Korean e-commerce site. A perfume is part of one of the Pomhyanggi cosmetics sets sold on the platform. There might be some details on what it smells like.
The description reveals that it has a strong scent, but other than that, it wasn't very informative. Perhaps the writing on the bottle might be...?
The writing confirms the factory in which the product was made, but nothing else. Moving on.
Ryugyong - 류경
Produced in the Ryugyong Rose Processing Factory.
Some more products called "Perfume". The notes of all three are probably the same, as the factory's job is to process roses. A difference in the colours of liquid and writing on the labels could be pointing to a variation in concentration.
Unhasu - 은하수
Produced in the Pyongyang Cosmetics Factory.
North Korean sanctions include a ban on exporting luxury goods to the country, a move intended to target the elite. Without a legal means to obtain such products, they are often smuggled across the border through China, or companies produce their own dupes. In this case, Unhasu picked the latter and named their Chanel dupe "Perfume".
I also found this pretty flacon in a photo gallery from the factory, with no description.
Okryu - 옥류
Produced in the Pyongyang Essential Oils Factory.
According to the blog, this box was bought at Pyongyang airport. The numbers next to the target gender appear to distinguish one scent from another. Finally, some more informative names. No idea what they smell like, though. These flacons are my favourites among the North Korean ones I've seen.
Two of these appear to be at least inspired by #Miss Dior. I'll let you decide.
Judging by the bottle design, the purple bottles must be body or hair mists with a fresh (상쾌한, 'sangkwehan') scent. I'm unsure about the application of the product on the right because of the lid/basket over it, but it's probably rose-scented.
Parfumo Research (& Struggles)
Parfumo does not list any North Korean brands in its database yet, and I would be interested in changing that. Unfortunately, any sources available online are too old to prove current availability, let alone provide details on specific products. Furthermore, contacting the factories themselves or any regime-supporting organisations that may have connections to them is not something I feel comfortable doing at the moment.
In short, the information I currently have would probably not be sufficient for any good proposals.
But it's worth trying.
