North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s family spends millions yearly on luxury goods: S. Korean official
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (centre) and his sister Kim Yo Jong visiting an aviation plant in the Russian Far East in September.
PHOTO: AFP
Follow topic:
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his family are spending millions per year on luxury goods such as designer bags and watches, and have become less hesitant about flaunting their wealth, said a Seoul official.
South Korean news agency Yonhap reported on Thursday that the North Korean regime has been able to bring in luxury items, despite a ban on the export of luxury items to North Korea under a 2006 United Nations Security Council sanction.
A South Korea Ministry of Unification official, who declined to be named, said: “North Korea appears to be introducing luxury goods worth hundreds of millions to billions in Korean won yearly for the Kim Jong Un family.”
He added that the volume of imported goods decreased during the Covid-19 pandemic due to stricter border controls, but has been increasing since the second half of 2022.
The assessment of the Kim family is based on South Korean intelligence and the accounts of North Korean defectors, said the official.
In September, Mr Kim’s sister Kim Yo Jong was spotted carrying a black leather bag
The Korea Herald reported that the bag, which resembles a Lady Dior bag, is worth around $9,500.
Mr Kim is also known to gift luxury items to North Korean officials to keep their loyalty, according to Yonhap’s report.
The ministry official told the news agency that Mr Kim gives luxury cars to officials whom he particularly likes, or those who have made special military accomplishments.
“He also hands out Swiss watches from brands like Omega, or the latest electronic devices, at events commemorating the birthdays of the Kim family, or the party congress meeting,” said the official.
Pyongyang has been blasted for expanding its nuclear arsenal at the expense of its people, who are struggling with extreme hunger and a lack of basic necessities.
At a UN Security Council meeting in August
One North Korean defector, Mr Ilhyeok Kim, told the council that he was forced to toil in the fields as a child but all the grain that was grown was taken by the military.
“The government turns our blood and sweat into a luxurious life for the leadership and missiles that blast our hard work into the sky,” he said.
According to a July report released by the Bank of Korea – South Korea’s central bank – the North’s economy shrank for a third consecutive year in 2022 as its gross domestic product (GDP) decreased 0.2 per cent in real terms. This followed a 0.1 per cent contraction in 2021 and a 4.5 per cent reduction in 2020.
The report said the North’s nominal GDP amounted to 36.2 trillion South Korean won (S$36.7 billion). Singapore’s nominal GDP was $644 billion in 2022, according to its Ministry of Trade and Industry.
The highly secretive and isolated North Korea does not publish economic data.
