Kim Yo-jung (third from right) was spotted carrying a black leather bag that resembled a Lady Dior bag in September. - AFP
SEOUL (The Straits Times/Asia News Network): 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 have been able to bring in luxury items, despite a ban on 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 it 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, Kim Jong-un’s sister Kim Yo-jung was spotted carrying a black leather bag that is reportedly from French luxury brand Christian Dior, during a trip to Russia.
The Korea Herald reported that the bag, which resembles a Lady Dior bag, is worth around S$9,500.
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 Kim gives luxury cars to officials who 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.
North Korea has been blasted for expanding its arsenal of nuclear arms at the expense of its people who are struggling with extreme hunger and a lack of basic necessities.
At a United Nations Security Council meeting in August, officials spoke of forced labour and a shortage of medicines in the country.
One North Korean defector, Ilhyeok Kim, told the council that he was forced to toil in the fields as a child but all the grain that was grown were 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,” said Kim.
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 S$644 billion in 2022, according to the Ministry of Trade and Industry.
The highly secretive and isolated North Korea does not publish economic data.
