00:00I knew their heart-wrenching stories long before I flew halfway around the world,
00:06but it didn't make them any easier to hear.
00:19These young smugglers are part of an underground resistance in North Korea,
00:24pushing the limits against one of the most oppressive regimes on the planet.
00:30I've never been to Korea, but...
00:36Risking everything for an unexpected tool for freedom, makeup.
00:46The Democratic People's Republic of Korea, better known as North Korea,
00:51was born after World War II when the once-united Korean Peninsula was split.
00:57You probably know it best for its eccentric millennial dictator, Kim Jong-un,
01:02his arsenal of nuclear weapons, and his tit-for-tat with international leaders.
01:07In North Korea, access to the internet and cell phones is heavily restricted.
01:13And few are allowed to leave.
01:16The longest-running communist dynasty has survived by ruling with an iron fist.
01:22But there's a new wave of resistance brewing.
01:25Only it might not look how you think.
01:29Seoul, South Korea, is known for street after street of beauty boutiques,
01:34carrying the latest South Korean products, known as K-Beauty.
01:38Wow, I love lipstick.
01:41In less than a decade, it's exploded into a more than $13 billion industry.
01:49The sheer amount of choices and information can be exhilarating,
01:53especially for 27-year-old Jessie Kim.
02:01She and I same neutral colors?
02:04Yes, right.
02:05My colors, really?
02:06We're both neutral.
02:07Oh my gosh, so good.
02:10Jessie grew up in North Korea, under oppressive rule.
02:18She's part of a new generation that's pushing boundaries in an unexpected way.
02:28She's part of a new generation that's pushing boundaries in an unexpected way.
02:41Strict rules around appearance are used by the North Korean regime as a form of control.
02:48Visual confirmation of whether or not you fall in line.
02:52A state-issued guide outlines specific hairstyles and lengths approved by the Supreme Leader.
03:00Salon menus show the cuts that are allowed.
03:04Appearances are so regulated that any deviations can lead to public shaming and even arrest.
03:10But what's strictly controlled by the regime is still finding its way in.
03:32Dawn Bi Kim started a business smuggling basic goods into North Korea at just 14 years old.
03:38But she quickly realized that beauty and fashion items were the most in demand.
03:48What kind of items were most requested?
03:56Many North Koreans barely know what South Korean K-beauty products are even called.
04:02But they know they want them.
04:12You were getting hundreds of orders from all over North Korea.
04:19The demand for South Korean products is high.
04:23But how do they even know that they exist?
04:26The best way to understand K-beauty is within the Korean wave.
04:31The Korean wave.
04:33A tsunami of popular South Korean culture.
04:37Boy bands and girl bands.
04:41K-dramas and films.
04:44And the latest wave.
04:48K-beauty.
04:50So as you see here, we have four different kinds of masks.
04:54This microtip patch has a needle here.
04:56Wait, there's needles on these sheet masks?
04:58Iconic South Korean brand, Dr. Jart, is at the forefront of K-beauty.
05:04It's like a lab down here.
05:05Its progress is part of a larger experiment.
05:09We've got some support with our global marketing activities such as a pop-up store project in the US and
05:16in China.
05:17So the government awarded Dr. Jart funding so we can go out into the world and do pop-up stores
05:23and spread the word even further internationally.
05:26Mmm, yeah.
05:26It's part of a government strategy to export Korean culture and build international influence.
05:33It's called soft power.
05:35In international relations, if we talk about soft power, that's usually in contrast to what we call hard power.
05:41So when we talk about hard power, we normally think of something like, you know, bombs, guns, military might.
05:46When we talk about soft power, we're trying to use the power of attraction to get the counterpart to do
05:51what we would think is desirable behavior.
05:53So if hard power is forcing people to like you, soft power is getting them to like you.
05:59Yeah.
05:59This soft power strategy has been vital to South Korea becoming an economic powerhouse by bringing in tens of billions
06:07of dollars.
06:08The Korean wave has reached countries all over the world, including its adversarial neighbor.
06:17K-dramas smuggled into North Korea through flash drives have spread like wildfire, and so have its beauty trends.
06:25We've heard from North Koreans how they began to wonder, why can't we have these things ourselves?
06:31Liberty in North Korea is a nonprofit that helps North Koreans defect and tracks the information they bring out the
06:37country with them.
06:38It's this sort of shared disobedience, you could say.
06:41In a country that's as restrictive as North Korea, this is a really interesting and important signal.
06:57You're a rebel.
07:00Jessie was able to avoid being arrested, but Donbi paid a heavy price.
07:07One night, North Korean officials came to Donbi's home and arrested her entire family.
07:13They accused her older brother of being a spy, a common umbrella charge for going against the regime.
07:21She was just 17.
07:23She was able to avoid where to try and be confused as she used to.
07:31She basically had a small group of girls.
07:34She felt like a lot of children, which were not the same.
07:44She did not go to the public zoo in London.
07:46She was able to avoid being arrested or being arrested at the hospital.
07:46She was trying to reach the public zoo at the hospital and brought back to the hotel.
07:47She was able to go walk to the hill as a gang-a- dungeon.
07:48Oh.
07:50Punishments for rule-breakers in North Korea are horrifying.
07:56The state has a secret network of camps and detention centers that it denies exists,
08:02despite detailed satellite images and verified testimonies collected by the UN.
08:09Drawings from prison camp survivors detail the conditions they endured.
08:14Eating rats to survive.
08:16Barbaric forms of torture.
08:19And even mass executions.
08:21It's estimated that around 200,000 North Koreans are imprisoned in camps today.
08:56I received a lot of torture.
08:56I received a lot of torture.
08:56He told me that he was all done, so he would live and leave a house.
09:03He told me that he was all done, he was all done with his job.
09:06I was all done with his job, his job, and his job.
09:12He was all done with his job.
09:17When he was like that, my house was just a bit of a fire.
09:23I was so excited.
09:25I think I can help you with your brother.
09:30I think I can help you with your brother.
09:39Don B's decision to leave wasn't an easy one.
09:43Defecting from North Korea is a difficult journey.
09:46South Korea has an open door policy,
09:49but there's no easy way to get there.
09:51The demilitarized zone between the two countries
09:54makes it nearly impossible to cross at the border.
09:57Instead, most take their chances through China
10:00and then on to Mongolia or Southeast Asia,
10:03hoping to make it to a country that won't send them back.
10:08Liberty in North Korea's footage
10:09gives us a rare view into the harrowing journey.
10:13You may face the risk of being shot in the back
10:15as you're trying to get to the other side,
10:18or caught midway through and being dragged all the way back
10:22in the act of trying to get across.
10:24There's no time to think.
10:25Sometimes they don't even eat
10:26because they're so nervous and scared.
10:31That's about a 3,000-mile journey,
10:33longer than the distance between New York and L.A.
10:37Once they get to Southeast Asia and our team greets them,
10:40it's always a mix of emotions.
10:45Some people are just so exhausted.
10:47They just pass out.
10:49Others are just so overjoyed
10:51because this is the first time that they are truly free.
10:56Of the more than 25 million people living in North Korea,
11:00it's estimated that about 1,000 safely escape each year.
11:04Hannah and her team are involved every step of the way.
11:08They've seen what matters most to defectors who make it to safety.
11:12The basics are the most important,
11:13but every so often women will ask for BB cream
11:18or maybe they'll ask for hair dye or face masks.
11:23Some people might look at this very small step of what you do,
11:27which is put in together these kits and say,
11:29why would someone from North Korea need a face mask?
11:32What would your response to that be?
11:34I can only imagine how difficult that journey is.
11:38And so to come through that,
11:40even if there's something small we can provide,
11:42like a face mask,
11:44what's so wrong about wanting to really look their best
11:46as they're really starting a new life?
11:49It's a reminder that K-beauty's impact
11:51goes beyond face value.
11:53It's a tool of comfort, resistance,
11:56and especially international influence.
12:00I'm about to learn just how far that influence goes
12:03when it comes to North Korea.
12:07Just last year, Kim Jong-un declared that North Korea
12:11was getting into the global luxury cosmetics game
12:14to make, in his words,
12:16the world's best cosmetics.
12:18Is K-beauty a threat to North Korea?
12:21Yeah, I think so is the South Korean K-beauty threat
12:25to the Kim Jong-un regime.
12:27It is important for North Korea to prevent
12:31the South Korean K-beauties to enter the North Korean society.
12:36Professor Nam is one of the few people in the world
12:39who's studying North Korean beauty products.
12:41He offered to show me what NK beauty looks like.
12:45I wouldn't know that any of this is from North Korea
12:48if I wasn't standing in your office looking at products
12:50that you basically can't find in most of the world.
12:54I'm trying North Korean state-created beauty products
12:57for the first time.
12:59It doesn't smell like a beauty product.
13:01It doesn't have that florally, fragrancy smell
13:04that beauty products will have,
13:05and it smells more like it's an edible product.
13:07For the countries of North and South Korea,
13:11beauty has become a new weapon in the race for power.
13:15For its people, it's a driver of change.
13:18These small changes that are happening
13:21are being driven by North Korean people.
13:24This is really where there's hope.
13:27The reality is, beauty isn't going to free North Korea.
13:31But curiosity about self-expression creates curiosity
13:36about the outside world.
13:47It's empowering the younger generations
13:51to imagine a new kind of North Korea.
13:54I don't like to think about the United States
13:57anymore.
14:01I just want to think about it.
