KIM Jong-un has opened up a knock-off Ikea store in the middle of a luxury North Korean shopping mall.
The brazen dictator made no attempt to disguise the fake store, even using exactly the same name and logo as the Swedish retail giant.
In the store, tables and chairs are shoved together like a storage warehouse instead of in Ikea’s signature walk through show rooms.
Lamps, desks and shelves clutter a floor in a pathetic attempt to recreate the flatpack phenomenon’s shop floor.
The counterfeit outlet was spotted in a new video of Ryumgyong Plaza mall – Pyongyang’s laughable attempt to mimic a grand shopping centre.
The footage, released by the regime’s propaganda arm, also includes other stores claiming to be high-end Western brands Ikea, Chanel and Adidas.
Ikea told Swedish newspaper Expressen: “There are no authorized Ikea retailers in North Korea.”
The company added that violations of intellectual property rights are continuously monitored and “appropriate action taken”.
It’s unclear whether genuine IKEA products are being sold in the outlet or if the wares are fake.
This video, released by DPRK Times, says it is exhibiting the Ryugyong plaza shopping mall, central Pyongyang, which opened in 2023.
The mall appears shiny, new and fully stocked – but it is weirdly devoid of customers.
This would not be the first time Kim has been caught ignoring the restrictions.
In 2019, his country spectacularly mocked the UN sanctions by opening a John Lewis-style shop flogging western brands.
The UN imposed sanctions in 2006 banning the sale of western goods to the communist nation, meaning these stores would illegal.
The furniture maker has 480 stores in 63 different countries and North Korea is not supposed to be one of them.
China is North Korea’s biggest trading partner and so it is possible that items intended for that market have been smuggled into North Korea.
However, China is also known for producing convincing replicas of high-end branded products which could be making their way into these illicit branches.
It’s also possible that the stores don’t exist or operate at all, and that this was all a front for the propaganda campaign.
Niklas Swanström, a Swedish political scientist specialising in North Korea, said this mall tour is a classic example of DPRK propaganda.
He said: “Nothing happens in North Korea without the involvement of the state.
“Since this is published on TikTok, it means that the North Koreans who have access to Tiktok – and can release films – do so with the approval of the state.
“It’s not that the common man has access to Tiktok.
“That is absolutely not the case.”
Most of the comments under these posts accuse the videos of being “North Korean propaganda”, met with only occasional efforts from the channels to argue otherwise.
Kim has a history of overseeing the production of knock-off goods in order to dodge sanctions.
He was found to be churning out thousands of tonnes of fake beards, wigs and other cosmetic items in 2019 labelled as “Made in China” to avoid export sanctions.
And earlier this year footage emerged that appeared to show North Koreans pretending to use the internet – Kim’s bid to disguise the fact that he deprives his people of web access.
Its producers said the footage was “designed to convince us that [North Korea] had access to the internet just like the rest of the world, which we knew wasn’t true”.
Pyongyang’s fake luxury goods
NORTH Korea has a history of appearing to sell good from brands without a licence to do so.
If the items sold are genuine, then this flouts UN-imposed sanctions banning the sale of western goods to the country.
It could be that the stores are selling replicas, or that they are smuggled into North Korea after being sold to different countries.
Some of the most recognisable names North Korean malls have claimed to sell in knock-off stores include:
- Adidas
- Dior
- Chanel
- Ikea
- Rolex
- Tissot
- Fila
