Unauthorized Use of Famous Characters at North Korea’s Spring Clothing Exhibition-2024 Sparks Controversy

Photos from North Korea’s “Spring Clothing Exhibition-2024”. Children’s clothing with “Lotso Bear” written on it is displayed on a mannequin in the front row. /Yonhap News, Korean Central News Agency

During a clothing exhibition held in North Korea, the unauthorized use of famous overseas characters was again discovered.

The Korean Central News Agency recently published photos of the “Spring Clothing Exhibition-2024” and reported: “The exhibition opened at the Three Revolutions Exhibition Hall in Pyongyang on the 29th of last month.” It is reported that more than 50,000 items of spring and summer clothing from about 270 units producing light industry products were presented at the exhibition.

The problem was the children’s clothes displayed on a mannequin in the front row of the photo. This is a t-shirt with a large print of the character “Lotso Bear” from the Disney animation “Toy Story”. Lotso Bear, a pink bear, is a popular character with the “cute on the outside, but bad at the core” setting.

Disney is famous for its harsh response to copyright infringement. There’s even a joke that if you want to escape a desert island, you should draw a Disney character in the sand. Therefore, it is assumed that it is highly unlikely that North Korea officially purchased the rights to design and produce children’s clothing.

A screen on North Korea’s Chosun Central TV reporting news of a show in Pyongyang on February 16. A Korean animation character was drawn on a balloon held by an audience member with a child. /Chosun Central TV Yonhap News Character Pororo in a program broadcast on Chosun Central TV in 2014. /what’s new

This is not the first time North Korea has violated copyright. Previously, in February, the Korean animation “Go!” “Super Wings” appeared. The characters “Hogi” and “Ari” were drawn on the balloon held by a North Korean citizen.

In addition, Pororo, the main character of Korea’s representative children’s animation program “Porong Pororo Pororo”, appeared in a program called “Looking for a Nursery in Pyongyang City” in 2014. At that time, he was captured on the screen while being used as children’s dolls and as decoration for slides in nurseries.

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