Since Kim Jong Un and Putin met in September 2023, the two countries have forged closer ties.
Seoul:
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un received a car from Russian President Vladimir Putin as a gift “for his personal use,” state media reported on Tuesday, potentially violating a United Nations ban on Pyongyang that Moscow has joined.
Since a September meeting between Kim and Putin, the two countries have forged closer ties and pledged to promote exchanges across the board at a time when their international isolation has deepened due to Russia’s war in Ukraine and North Korea’s nuclear weapons development.
The official KCNA news agency said Russia delivered the Russian-made car to Kim Jong Un’s top aide on February 18.
KCNA said Kim Jong Un’s sister “politely conveyed Kim Jong Un’s gratitude to Putin to the Russian side, saying the gift clearly demonstrated the special personal relationship between the supreme leaders.”
The report did not describe the vehicle or how it arrived from Russia. King is believed to be an avid car enthusiast and has a large collection of foreign luxury cars believed to have been smuggled in.
In September, when Kim Jong-un visited Russia’s Far East Space Launch Station, he inspected President Putin’s Aurus Senat limousine and was invited to sit in the back seat by the Russian leader.
Kim himself traveled to the scene in a Maybach limousine, aboard the special train he had taken from Pyongyang.
That car and others he was traveling in, including several Mercedes limousines, a Rolls-Royce Phantom and a Lexus sport utility vehicle, are among the luxury goods banned from export to North Korea under U.N. Security Council resolutions.
Exchanges between the two countries are increasingly active, and North Korea is believed to be supplying Russia with artillery, rockets and ballistic missiles for use in its war against Ukraine.
The Kremlin has neither denied nor confirmed its use of North Korean-made weapons. North Korea denies accusations of shipping weapons to Russia, which also violates U.N. sanctions.
On Tuesday, KCNA reported separately that a delegation of North Korean ruling party officials returned from Russia and that three delegations representing information technology, fisheries and sports set out for Russia.
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