Lets suppose you’re a despotic nation short on cash. You’ve got a starving people, reporters to incarcerate, and a covert nuclear program to fund. What do you do?

Well, if you’re North Korea, the obvious answer is open a Cafepress store. Sure, glorious leader (seen in rare footage below), is a busy guy. That’s why he established the Korean Friendship Association to handle the tedious uploading and product description writing. An official state-run organization, they’ve made sure that you can get your glorification of nepotism on trucker hats, pins, mousepads, and, yes, t-shirts. The store is even linked to from the country’s official web page.

Now, from the US point of view, this is a big no-no (and not just because of some garish design choices). Sanctions by the U.S. Treasury Department prohibit American companies from importing “goods of North Korean origin… into the United States either directly or through third countries, without prior notification to and approval of the Office of Foreign Assets Control.” It also bars American businesses “from engaging in transfers from the Government of North Korea.”

When mediabistro asked CafePress about the relationship the company’s PR director responded:

I can confirm that checks are not sent to North Korea or any government agency.

However, it’s quite likely that a middleman with an address outside of North Korea may very well be in play. The issue has been bumped up to Cafepress’s content usage team for review. However, as of mid-morning today (June 9th) the site remains up. As much as I hate to say it, does the impending ax imply that these items are about to go collectible?