Kim Jong-un and Vladimir Putin sit in the Russian president’s Aurus Senat limousine at Vostochny Cosmodrome in September 2023 – Yonhap
Vladimir Putin has given Kim Jong-un a Russian-made luxury car, following earlier reports that Pyongyang had supplied ballistic missiles and ammunition for Moscow’s war against Ukraine.
The arrival of the car, which violates United Nations sanctions to which Russia previously signed up, was confirmed on Tuesday morning by North Korea’s state media outlet KCNA, which did not specify the vehicle’s model.
It is possible that the car is an Aurus Senat armoured sedan or limousine, similar to the one Putin showed off to Kim when the North Korean leader visited Russia last September, the NK News website reported.
The expensive gesture signals closening ties between the two countries, which have forged a deeper alliance of convenience over the last year in their shared goal to upset Washington’s policies in Ukraine and the Indo-Pacific.
Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korea’s leader, said the “gift serves as a clear demonstration of the special personal relations between the top leaders” of the two countries, KCNA added.
Her brother is infamous for flaunting his fleet of high-end foreign vehicles and was seen last December riding in four new foreign vehicles, including a $200,000 armoured Mercedes-Maybach S560 sedan. He has previously been seen in a Rolls-Royce Phantom.
Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un during a meeting at the Vostochny Cosmodrome last September – SPUTNIK
The fondness for luxury vehicles is generational. Kim’s grandfather, who first ruled North Korea, is said to have loved his ZIS Soviet limousine, while his son Kim Jong-il was a Mercedes-Benz fan.
It is not known exactly how the vehicles, along with other Kim family favourites including designer bags and pricey French wines, have reached the country.
However in 2019, a report by the Washington-based Centre for Advanced Defence Studies said Pyongyang’s ability to smuggle vehicles through China, South Korea and Japan demonstrated how it was also able to supply its nuclear weapons programme.
South Korean intelligence has reported a rise in suspected maritime shipments of weapons including short-range ballistic missiles and more than one million shells from Pyongyang to Moscow, that began in mid-2022 around the time that Kim and Putin met for talks at Russia’s Vostochny Cosmodrome.
Kim returned from that trip with gifts of a rifle, a cosmonaut’s glove, and military drones, and the two countries pledged to strengthen their relationship from defence issues to tourism.
Russian tourists arrived in North Korea earlier this month on the first known foreign tour since pandemic-linked border closures.
Putin is expected to reciprocate Kim’s visit by travelling to Pyongyang, although the timing has not been confirmed.
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