Facial masks in the image of Supreme Leader of North Korea Kim Jong Un have been pulled from some store shelves in South Korea. Marketed\u2026<\/b>
\nFacial masks in the image of Supreme Leader of North Korea Kim Jong Un have been pulled from some store shelves in South Korea. Marketed as \u00ab\u00a0unification nuclear bomb\u00a0\u00bb facial masks, they promise to enrich skin with mineral water from Mount Paektu, a sacred mountain in North Korea said to be the birthplace of the Kim regime.
More than 25,000 masks have sold since June, according to The New York Times. The masks sell for about 4,000 South Korean won (about $3.50) each. Some stores have stopped selling the masks, though, including Pierrot Shopping, a leading chain store in South Korea.
The chief executive of the company, 5149, selling the masks, said they are a celebration of this year’s \u00ab\u00a0once in a lifetime\u00a0\u00bb inter-Korean summits between Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in. \u00ab\u00a0I don’t know what Kim Jong-un means in North Korea or what he represents politically, but the whole country of South Korea was happy,\u00a0\u00bb Kwak Hyeon-ju told the Times .
5149 is advertising the masks with slogans such as, \u00ab\u00a0All hail moisture for all women of the North and South!\u00a0\u00bb and \u00ab\u00a0Should we now go over the border with a whitened face?\u00a0\u00bb according to The Washington Post .
An Instagram video promoting the masks appears to mock news broadcasts in North Korea, beginning with the announcement, \u00ab\u00a0Breaking news! A nuclear bomb explodes on the face.\u00a0\u00bb
Some South Korean skin care experts aren’t impressed. Irene Kim, co-founder of a medical tourism company, said, \u00ab\u00a0A few years ago, North Korea was the largest threat to our country… Kim Jong-un was seen as a dictator and a tyrant who would stop at nothing to disrupt world peace, now he’s become the face of a popular face mask,\u00a0\u00bb reports The South China Morning Post.
Kim Jong Un’s thoughts about the beauty masks are not yet known.
In 2014, North Korean officials were displeased with a London hair salon after it used a picture of Kim on a poster advertising discounts on men’s haircuts. \u00ab\u00a0Bad hair day?\u00a0\u00bb the advertisement read, according to the BBC.
The North Koreans told the manager of the salon, Mo Nabbach, that he had to take the poster down because it was \u00ab\u00a0disrespectful\u00a0\u00bb to their leader. \u00ab\u00a0The two guys were wearing suits and they were very serious. It was very threatening,\u00a0\u00bb Nabbach told The London Evening Standard.
The BBC reports Nobbach told the North Korean officials, \u00ab\u00a0Listen this isn’t North Korea, this is England, we live in a democracy so I’m afraid you’re going to have to get out of my salon.\u00a0\u00bb
\u00ab\u00a0No-one asked for the ‘Un’,\u00a0\u00bb the manager later explained. \u00ab\u00a0It was never intended to be a political statement, it’s all tongue-in-cheek. We were just using it as a cheeky ad campaign.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n