The Mercedes-Benz limousines that have carried Kim Jong Un to meet Donald Trump in Singapore and Hanoi and to summits with Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping have long raised the question: where does the isolated North Korean dictator get his cars?
Mr Kim’s favoured mode of transport has put the spotlight on the illicit sale of luxury goods to North Korea’s elite, which according to a report has persisted on a much larger scale than previously thought.
UN sanctions on exports of luxury items to North Korea were implemented in 2006 as a way of putting pressure on the country’s elite. But yesterday the Center for Advanced Defense Studies, a Washington research group, said North Korea had procured luxury goods from as many as 90 countries between 2015 and 2017.