CJ ENM Illegally Imports Banned North Korean Clothing Disguised as Chinese Products

CJ ENM and its employee were fined for disguising clothing produced in North Korea as Chinese-made and importing it into South Korea.

On the 18th, according to Yonhap News and legal sources, the Incheon District Court sentenced CJ ENM and the company's manager Mr. A to fines of 10 million won and 7 million won respectively on charges of violating the Customs Act and the Foreign Trade Act.

Four others, including Mr. B, the representative of the clothing supplier company, and the representative of a subcontractor, who were also tried together, were each fined between 17.8 million and 27.8 million won.

They were indicted on charges of smuggling approximately 75,000 pieces of clothing worth about 800 million won produced in North Korea into South Korea disguised as Chinese-made goods in 10 instances from June to October 2017.

Mr. A was investigated to have given the final quality approval despite knowing that the clothing was falsely labeled as Chinese-made when it was actually North Korean-made.

They committed the crime in violation of the United Nations Security Council's ban on the import of finished clothing products from North Korea, which was imposed in September 2017 in response to North Korea's nuclear tests.

At that time, the Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 2375. The resolution partially cut off North Korea's energy supply and blocked financial channels such as textile exports, which are a major source of income. Textile exports, including fully banned fabrics, intermediate products, and finished clothing products, have been considered one of North Korea's main sources of foreign currency income.

Mr. B and others are also accused of secretly importing about 19,000 North Korean-made flight jackets disguised as Chinese-made goods into South Korea from September to October 2018.

It is known that they committed the crime to meet production deadlines after contracting with CJ ENM to sell the flight jackets on home shopping broadcasts on consignment.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.