Seoul [South Korea]August 13 : North Korean leader Kim Jong-un appeared to be driving a new Mercedes-Benz SUV model in defiance of UN sanctions banning North Korean imports of luxury goods, local media in neighboring South Korea reported.
Seoul-based Yonhap news agency published photos carried by the Korean Central News Agency on Tuesday that showed a black Mercedes-Benz SUV on a special train that Kim visited last week in flood-hit areas in the northwestern province of North Pyongan.
Under UN resolutions first enacted in 2006, exports of luxury cars and other high-end goods to North Korea were banned after Pyongyang conducted underground nuclear tests.
„Kim appears to have acquired another high-end Mercedes-Benz SUV, a Mercedes-Maybach GLS 600 he was seen using in January in footage broadcast on state television,” the report in Yonhap said.
Known for her love of Mercedes-Benz, Kim has been seen in public in various Mercedes-Maybach S-Class vehicles, including a limousine.
Putin made a rare foreign trip in June this year since launching his invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and the two leaders toured the North Korean capital in a Russian-made Auras limousine, according to media reports.
In March this year, the North Korean leader took his first trip in a luxury car gifted to him by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Al Jazeera reported.
2023 is their first summit in four years, since Kim met Putin in Russia in September. Putin invited Kim to try out his high-end Auras Senate limousine, and the vehicle arrived in Pyongyang in February. Kim has been using the car since Friday, according to his sister and prominent government official Kim Yo Jong.
According to Russian state media, Auras is Russia’s first luxury car brand and has been used in the motorcades of high-ranking officials since Putin first used an Auras limousine at his inauguration in 2018.
Kim Jong Un, 40, owns a collection of foreign-made luxury cars believed to have been smuggled into the country. During his Russia trip, he traveled between meeting places in a Maybach limousine that he brought with him on his special train. Other limousines used by Kim include the Mercedes-Maybach S600 Pullman Guard and the Maybach S62.
Russia and China, North Korea’s oldest allies, have called for a new UN resolution over North Korea’s banned ballistic missile tests.
Meanwhile, in the US, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump referred to both Putin and Kim Jong Un as „smart and evil” in a conversation with tech billionaire Elon Musk on August 12 (local time).
„I know [Russian President Vladimir] Putin. i know [Chinese] President G [Jinping]. I know you Kim Jong [of North Korea]. They are at the top of their game; They are tough; They are intelligent; They’re evil — they’re going to defend their country,” Trump said in an interview aired on social media platform X.
Referring to US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump said, „They couldn’t believe it when they saw Kamala or Joe sleeping.”
Trump also described the time he allegedly advised Putin against invading Ukraine. „I told him, 'Don’t do it, you can’t do it, Vladimir,'” he told Putin.
Trump also said North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called President Joe Biden a „stupid man.” Former US President Trump told Elon Musk that his predecessor warned him about North Korea before he took office.
„President Obama thought we were going to a nuclear war,” Trump said in his X-Space interview with Musk. [with North Korea]”I dealt with that problem quickly,” he added.
Disclaimer: This post was automatically published from an agency feed without any changes to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor.
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