North Korea's top officials hosted a pricey year-end meeting this week to bring together the country's elites. This was reported by the South Korean news agency Yonhap News AgencyThe Central Committee of the North Korean Workers' Party met in Pyongyang to review policies for the new year. They arrived in luxury Mercedes S-class vehicles, despite a ban on luxury goods in the country. Notably, the United Nations enforces sanctions on luxury vehicle sales to North Korea.
According to YonhapNorth Korea's Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un chaired the ruling party's year-end meeting to review state policies for this year and discuss policies for 2024. During the meeting, party officials were seen coming out of the eighth-generation S-class limousine. and other luxury cars, despite international sanctions.
The news agency noted that Kim Jong Un himself has previously made public appearances in several Mercedes-Maybach S-class vehicles, including a limousine. In 2020, he was also seen driving an SUV, believed to be a Lexus LX 570. Such luxury vehicles are subject to UN sanctions that ban the supply of luxury cars to North Korea.
Notably, this comes weeks after an attempt to smuggle a Lexus sedan worth $70,000 into North Korea was foiled by police in Japan, according to a report in the South China Morning Post (SCMP). The car was intercepted on the same day that North Korea recalled its ambassador to Switzerland amid an investigation into the ivory trade, the newspaper said. The car was seized during a raid on a used car showroom on December 7 in Chiba Prefecture. Japanese news outlet Asahi Shimbun reported that the showroom had filed paperwork stating that the luxury car was being sent to Singapore via Bangladesh.
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The seizure became news because the export of luxury cars and other luxury items to North Korea is banned under a UN resolution. The ban came into effect in 2006 when Pyongyang conducted underground nuclear tests.
Meanwhile, returning to the event in Pyongyang, Kim Jong Un spoke at the meeting, where he called 2023 a “year of great upheaval and great change” and a “year of great importance.” According to Fox news, he said that the past year in North Korea has seen “eye-opening victories and events in all areas for socialist construction and the strengthening of national power.”