The fondness for high-end vehicles is generational. Kim’s grandfather, Kim Il-sung, who first ruled North Korea, is said to have loved his ZIS Soviet limousine, while the dictator’s father, 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 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.
