Kim Jong Un’s Maybachs arrived in Pyongyang via 6 countries

Smuggling routes of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s “bullet-proof Maybachs” have been revealed. It is assumed that the two Maybachs traveled six countries including Italy, the Netherlands, China, Japan, South Korea and Russia over the period of eight months before arriving in Pyongyang last year.

According to overseas media outlets such as NK News on Saturday (local time), the UN Security Council's North Korea Sanctions Committee is investigating an illegal import of two Mercedes Benz S600s to North Korea for the annual report from a UN panel of experts. The committee officially reaffirmed the analysis of the Center for Advanced Defense Studies (C4ADS) in July last year. High-end limousines are banned in North Korea as they are categorized as luxuries.

The report says an Italian dealer first purchased the cars. After purchasing the cars at a German factory in February 2018, the dealer reregistered them in Italy. The cars were loaded at the port of Rotterdam, the Netherlands four months later before they arrived at the port of Busan in September via Osaka at the end of August.

The container holding the cars were moved to DN5505, a Togolese cargo ship, at the Busan harbor and arrived at the port of Nakhodka, Russia. The Russian port said there was no entry record of DN5505, but the UN committee assumes that the ship turned off its auto identification system to avoid tracking and arrived at the port around October 5. The committee is still tracking down the exact route. The C4ASD suggested the possibility that the cars were transported on Air Koryo from Russia to North Korea last year.

Meanwhile, North Korea has reportedly earned hundreds of billions of won by exporting items such as coal banned by the UN Security Council. It raked in 370 million U.S. dollars by illegally exporting at least 370 tons of coal from January to August last year, and sold dredged up sand for river worth 22 million dollars to China.

Pyongyang also violated import regulations on petroleum products by exceeding the annual limit of 500,000 barrels. The report said North Korea’s petroleum import from January to October las year reached between 1.43 million barrels and 3.89 barrels, which was well over the limit.


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