North Korea’s Kim Jong-un seen with shiny new luxury car, defying sanctions

Seoul: Defying UN sanctions banning North Korea’s imports of luxury goods, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un appeared to be using a new model of a Mercedes-Benz SUV, local media in neighbouring South Korea reported.

Seoul-based Yonhap news agency on Tuesday published photos carried by the Korean Central News Agency, which showed a black Mercedes-Benz SUV on a special train that Kim used to visit flood-hit areas in the northwestern province of North Phyongan last week.

Under UN resolutions, first enacted in 2006 after Pyongyang carried out underground nuclear tests, exports of luxury cars and other high-end items to North Korea are banned.

“Kim appears to have secured another high-end Mercedes-Benz SUV, as he was seen using the Mercedes-Maybach GLS 600 in January in footage aired by state-run TV,” a report in Yonhap stated.

Kim, known for his love for Mercedes-Benz, has made public appearances in different Mercedes-Maybach S-class vehicles, including a limousine.

In June this year Putin on a rare overseas trip since he launched the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 visited Pyongyang and the two leaders were seen cruising around the North Korean capital in a Russian-made Aurus limousine as per media reports.

In March this year the North Korean leader took his first ride in the luxury car that was gifted to him by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Al Jazeera reported.

Since Kim met Putin in Russia in September 2023, their first summit in four years. Putin also invited Kim to try out his high-end Aurus Senat limousine, and the vehicle arrived in Pyongyang in February. Kim used the car for the first time on Friday, according to his sister and prominent government official Kim Yo Jong.

According to Russian state media, Aurus is Russia’s first luxury car brand and has been used in motorcades of top officials since Putin first used an Aurus limousine during his inauguration ceremony in 2018.

Kim Jong Un, 40, has a collection of foreign-made luxury cars believed to have been smuggled into the country. During his Russia visit, he travelled between meeting sites in a Maybach limousine that he brought with him on his special train. Other limousines Kim has reportedly used include a Mercedes-Maybach S600 Pullman Guard and a Maybach S62.

Russia and China, North Korea’s oldest ally, have repeatedly blocked attempts to impose new UN sanctions on North Korea over its banned ballistic missile tests, according to Al Jazeera.

Meanwhile, in the US, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in a conversation on August 12 (local time) with tech billionaire Elon Musk termed both Putin and Kim Jong Un as “smart and vicious.”

“I know [Russian President Vladimir] Putin. I know [Chinese] President Xi [Jinping]. I know Kim Jong Un [of North Korea]. They’re at the top of their game; they’re tough; they’re smart; they’re vicious - and they’re going to protect their country,” Trump said in the interview that was broadcast in social media platform X.

Referring to US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump said, “When they see a Kamala or sleepy Joe they can’t believe it.”

Trump also described a time he allegedly counselled Putin against invading Ukraine. “I told him, ‘don’t do it. You cant do it, Vladimir,” Trump said he told Putin.

Trump also claimed that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un calls President Joe Biden a “stupid man”. The former US President Trump told Elon Musk that his predecessor warned him about North Korea before he took office.

Trump, in his X Spaces interview with Musk, claimed, “President Obama thought we were going to up in nuclear war [with North Korea].” “I had that problem handled quickly,” he added. (ANI)

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