CosmoBiz Magazine November 2017 | Page 60

All About HAIR Nuke, Missiles, and Wigs Democrat Chuck Schumer of New York said U.S. officials must keep products made by North Koreans out of the United States. “The Administration needs to ramp up the pressure on China to crack down on trade with North Korea across the board,”said Schumer. W igs and eyelashes made by North Ko- rean labor camp detainees and civilian children, as young as nine, are flood- ing into the U.S. market. If you go to a beauty supply store and find a fake eyelash that says “Made in China” and it is priced below a dollar or two, you should be suspicious of where it really comes from. Some hair product prices are going down dramatically, even the prices of time consuming ventilated full lace wigs may be dramatically lower, and you should also be suspicious who actually made them. At a time when North Korea faces strict sanctions on many exports, the government is sending tens of thousands of workers worldwide, bringing in revenue estimated at anywhere from $200 million to $500 million a year. This could account for a sizable portion of funding for North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile programs. The North Korean workers found in Chinese factories aren’t even allowed to leave the factory compound and receive only a fraction of their pay — most goes straight to the North Korean state. This means that a pack of hair, a wig, or fake eyelashes that are labeled “Made in China” may inadvertently be subsidizing the government of Kim Jong Un as it builds nuclear weapons, not to mention these items directly support forced labor. GOP Congressman Chris Smith from New Jersey, who has repeatedly called for tougher enforcement, said the Labor Department has already identified trafficking in 12 sectors of goods exported by China. Top senate 60 C O S M O B I Z M A G A Z I N E According to the Daily NK, “North Korean children, as young as 9-years old, are hired to make the fake eyelashes, which requires intricate attention to detail. The children toil under a burning lamp because there is no electricity, which stresses their eyes. Other workers have gotten burned when doing ironing work over a coal fire, only to make $0.05 per fake eyelash.” Spending less is favorable proposition in most cases, but at the price of child labor and labor camp detainees who work as slaves? It’s definitely time to say, “I am not going to pay for the North Korean nuke, nor the missiles, and I do not support the slavery, especially with children.”