Millions of dollars in sales of North Korean false eyelashes - marketed in beauty stores around the world as "made in China" - helped drive a recovery in the secretive state's exports last year, Ednews informs via Reuters.

The processing and packaging of North Korean false eyelashes - openly conducted in neighbouring China, the country's largest trading partner - gives Kim Jong Un's regime a way to skirt international sanctions, providing a vital source of foreign currency.

Reuters spoke to 20 people - including 15 in the eyelash industry, as well as trade lawyers and experts on North Korea's economy - who described a system in which China-based firms import semi-finished products from North Korea, which are then completed and packaged as Chinese.

The finished eyelashes are then exported to markets including the West, Japan and South Korea, according to eight people who work for companies directly involved in the trade.

Some of the people spoke on condition that only their last names be used because they were not authorised to talk to the media.