Without a license in North Korea Ikea goods appear illegally in a shopping center in Pyongyang

The latest luxury mall in North Korea's capital Pyongyang is adorned with Western goods, including furniture from Ikea. But the furnishing giant has never issued a license for North Korea.

An Ikea logo in a shopping mall would not really be anything special. But this one adorns a shop window in a shopping center in Pyongyang. And the store has furnishings from the Swedish furniture giant in its range that are also familiar from European stores. That is somewhat unusual.

According toBild, a Chinese exchange student who visited the shopping center shortly before Christmas uploaded a video to the social media platform Douyin. Since then, images have spread across the web.

Ikea responded immediately. A spokesperson explained that there are "no authorized Ikea sales channels in North Korea". In other words, Kim Jong-un has opened fake stores without permission. The Ikea spokesperson went on to explain that "measures will be taken if necessary".

But how did the Ikea furniture end up in North Korea? It is possible that they were originally intended for the Chinese market and were smuggled into the country via third parties.

More luxury brands on offer

The smuggling scam is not new. Another shopping center had already sold furniture from the Swedish global company in 2018. Here, too, Ikea had not given any approval for the sale.

And the furniture company does not appear to be the only manufacturer whose goods are being sold in North Korea without permission. The Ryugyong shopping center with around 87,000 square meters of retail space also houses luxury labels such as Mont Blanc and Gucci in addition to the fake Ikea store. It is hard to imagine that this is being done with the companies' consent.