A record wave of low-cost clothing from China is pouring into South Korea, and much of it is being illegally disguised as Korean-made.
Last year, South Korea imported more Chinese apparel than ever before. According to the Korea Customs Service, the country brought in $4.83 billion worth of clothing from China, up 50 percent from 2020.
With the rise in volume, the authorities are seeing a surge in a deceptive practice known in Korea as "label switching." Imported garments arrive with tags that say "Made in China," but these are often swapped out before reaching the customer. Korean sellers repackage the items to appear as if they were produced in South Korea.
In some cases, they even change the shipping invoices and boxes.
Korean customs officials report that in the first half of 2025, they seized 3.1 million illegally distributed goods. More than half (1.7 million) were flagged for missing or false country-of-origin labels. Most of these were Chinese clothes disguised as Korean products.
Korean sellers often buy these clothes for under $2 on platforms like Temu or AliExpress, then resell them on other e-commerce platforms or social media at 10 times the price. Many are advertised with vague claims like "luxury local fabric."
This comes as Chinese fast-fashion giant Shein sees a sharp rise in sales here. According to Mobile Index, a data service operated by South Korea-based IGAWorks, Shein's monthly active users in the country hit 1.75 million in June. This is almost four times higher than in January.
It now ranks sixth among fashion shopping apps in Korea, up from 11th last year. Another analytics firm, WiseApp Retail, reports that Shein passed 2.2 million Korean users for the first time, the highest ever recorded.
mjh@heraldcorp.com
