Products manufactured by the Japanese-Chinese low-cost retail brand Miniso are still being sold in Pyongyang, December pictures obtained by NK News show, despite Tokyo representatives of the brand previously claiming to have pulled out of the North Korea market.

Photos of two items purchased at the store this month showed a Miniso item adjacent to a similar item by copycat rival Ximivogue, a company which touts itself as a Korea-influenced but China-based lifestyle brand.

“The shelves were really a mix of Miniso and this Ximivogue brand, which undeniably seems to have a lot in common with Miniso,” a source who visited