plate 276 · 2025 data

Wigs are nearly half of what North Korea sells China

China's imports from North Korea by product, share of value, 2014 vs 2025, as recorded by China's customs.

Trade rewired
  1. 1. Mexico, not China, now sells America the most goods
  2. 2. China's ASEAN trade is now almost double its US trade
  3. 3. America's duty-free parcels grew almost tenfold in nine years
  4. 4. Mexico's factories now outproduce Britain's and France's
  5. 5. The UAE sold more goods abroad than France in 2025
  6. 6. The EU now buys more US gas than Russian gas
  7. 7. Malaysia again sells more to America than to China
  8. 8. Brazil mines 93% of the world's niobium
  9. 9. More Vietnamese now work in industry than on farms
  10. 10. Indonesia set to use more palm oil than it exports
  11. 11. Factories now make more of Cambodia's economy than China's
  12. 12. China now buys more from Brazil than from Germany
  13. 13. Kazakhstan now sells Russia more than Germany does
  14. 14. China fell to third among America's suppliers in 2025
  15. 15. America overtook China as Taiwan's biggest export market
  16. 16. Mongolia's coal exports hit a record 90 million tonnes
  17. 17. Viet Nam's ports now handle more containers than Japan's
  18. 18. Liberia overtook Panama as the biggest flag by ship capacity
  19. 19. Nickel made Indonesia the world's fifth-biggest iron and steel exporter
  20. 20. Mexico again hosts more US investment than China
  21. 21. Mexico replaced China as America's top computer supplier
  22. 22. France fell from first to third among Côte d'Ivoire's suppliers
  23. 23. Wigs are nearly half of what North Korea sells China
46.5%

Share of China's imports from North Korea that were wigs, false eyelashes and the like in 2025, up from 0.01% in 2014.

$205 M

Value of those hair goods in 2025, more than coal, ores and steel combined ($107 M).

−85%

Fall in China's total imports from North Korea, $2.87 bn to $441 M: coal and clothing all but vanished.

Source: UN Comtrade, China's imports from North Korea (HS, annual), 2025
the numbers & method
Wigs are nearly half of what North Korea sells China. Source: UN Comtrade, China's imports from North Korea (HS, annual), 2025.
Wigs and eyelashes (M)Coal and fuels (M)Clothing (M)Ores (M)Other (M)
201401,154741339634
202520524049163

Claim types Fact · Interpretation

UN Comtrade, annual goods trade by HS code, reporter China (156), partner Democratic People's Republic of Korea (408), imports, US$, read from the UN Comtrade public API: China's own customs records, since North Korea reports no trade. Wigs = HS 6704 (wigs, false beards, eyebrows and eyelashes, switches and the like, of human or animal hair or of textile materials). US$: total 2014 2,867,931,121 and 2025 441,096,049; HS 6704 2014 279,906 and 2025 205,008,819 (whole chapter 67: 579,553 and 205,756,851); coal, oil and fuels (HS 27) 1,154,058,731 and 24,346,245; clothing (HS 61 + 62) 118,985,194 + 622,023,807 = 741,008,999 in 2014 and none reported in 2025; ores (HS 26) 338,631,129 and 48,777,694; iron and steel (HS 72) 34,125,886 in 2025. 'Other' = total minus the parts shown (progrss calculation): 633,952,356 (2014) and 162,963,291 (2025). Shares, the −85% fall and 'coal, ores and steel combined' (24.3 + 48.8 + 34.1 = 107.2 M) are progrss calculations. In between: 2017 HS 6704 8,718,035 of 1,730,986,921 total; 2024 HS 6704 187,772,505 of 346,949,415 (54.1%). Context (Interpretation): UN Security Council resolutions 2321 (2016) and 2371, 2375 and 2397 (2017) banned North Korea's exports of coal, iron, seafood and textiles; hair goods are not on the list. Cross-check: Harvard Growth Lab Atlas (HS92 v18.0) puts chapter 67 at $151.5 M of North Korea's $402.9 M reconciled exports in 2024.

license this plate

what connects to this

003 new routes Central banks now hold more gold than Treasuries or euros 013 new routes Six of the world's ten busiest ports are in China 272 new routes Guinea rose from 17th to second for investment in Africa