Photo: The Independent
The cat and mouse game Kim Jong Un is playing with Donald Trump for about a year has exposed previously unknown details about one of the last dictators in the world. Among them, the fact that he likes cars.
During his 2018 meetings with Donald Trump in Singapore and Mike Pompeo in Pyongyang, Kim Jong Un and his entourage were seen traveling in style inside a number of luxury cars, including Mercedes-Benz, Lexus, and Rolls-Royce. Cars the dictator shouldn’t have had.
Ever since he got it into his head that a powerful nuclear arsenal will prevent Western powers from invading his famine-stricken paradise, Kim Jong Un and the entire North Korea are subject to heavy sanctions imposed by the international community.
Yet the very computer-savvy and street-smart North Koreans have always managed to circumvent these sanctions, and have always been able to keep living standards for high-ranking party officials at more than decent levels.
When it comes to luxury cars, the UN is looking into how Kim Jong UN was able to purchase them, and one of the organization’s panels has got in touch with the makers of the said cars to get to the bottom of it all.
According to France 24, citing an AFP report, Rolls-Royce has already identified the Phantom used by North Korean officials as having been produced between 2012 and 2017. The Mercedes cars were originally shipped to Hong Kong to a Chinese businessman, and Toyota said it had not violated sanctions to deliver Lexus cars to Pyongyang.
Neither of the three car companies has any ideas how Kim Jong Un got his hands on them.
It’s likely though that the car affair will become secondary to more pressing matters. On Monday, the UN released a report showing how North Korea broke sanctions when it comes to the import of oil and coal, and even export of weapons.
The UN accuses North Korea of using ship-to-ship transfers conducted at sea, changing the original destination of the transport.
Ever since he got it into his head that a powerful nuclear arsenal will prevent Western powers from invading his famine-stricken paradise, Kim Jong Un and the entire North Korea are subject to heavy sanctions imposed by the international community.
Yet the very computer-savvy and street-smart North Koreans have always managed to circumvent these sanctions, and have always been able to keep living standards for high-ranking party officials at more than decent levels.
When it comes to luxury cars, the UN is looking into how Kim Jong UN was able to purchase them, and one of the organization’s panels has got in touch with the makers of the said cars to get to the bottom of it all.
According to France 24, citing an AFP report, Rolls-Royce has already identified the Phantom used by North Korean officials as having been produced between 2012 and 2017. The Mercedes cars were originally shipped to Hong Kong to a Chinese businessman, and Toyota said it had not violated sanctions to deliver Lexus cars to Pyongyang.
Neither of the three car companies has any ideas how Kim Jong Un got his hands on them.
It’s likely though that the car affair will become secondary to more pressing matters. On Monday, the UN released a report showing how North Korea broke sanctions when it comes to the import of oil and coal, and even export of weapons.
The UN accuses North Korea of using ship-to-ship transfers conducted at sea, changing the original destination of the transport.
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