J.ESTINA bet on a North Korean factory and China exports — both were destroyed by politics

J.ESTINA was founded in 1988 as Romanson, a watch and jewelry manufacturer based in Seoul. In 2003 it launched the J.ESTINA jewelry brand, and in 2005 it became one of the first 15 South Korean companies to build a factory in the Gaeseong Industrial Complex in North Korea, investing ₩6 billion in the facility. The company also established a subsidiary in China in 2013 to serve the growing Chinese market for Korean jewelry.

Two geopolitical shocks hit in 2016. In February, South Korea shut down the Gaeseong complex — the factory was abandoned overnight with all assets frozen. In July, China's economic retaliation against South Korea over the THAAD missile deployment destroyed J.ESTINA's China export business. Revenue, which had peaked at ₩170.3 billion in 2016, fell to ₩139.9 billion in 2017 — the company's first net loss in 13 years. By 2020 revenue had fallen to ₩60 billion, a 65% decline from the peak.

Management responded to the crisis with fraud. In 2019, former CEO Kim Ki-seok sold ₩3.1 billion of his shares before the company disclosed a ₩1 billion operating loss — he was indicted for insider trading in January 2020. In 2022, the China subsidiary was liquidated. In March 2025, current CEO Kim Yu-mi and five employees were indicted for importing approximately 120,000 Chinese watches between 2017 and 2023, removing the 'Made in China' marks with acetone, and selling them as Korean-made products.