SEOUL.-Russian President Vladimir Putin presented his North Korean counterpart Kim Jong Un with a Russian-made luxury limousine for his personal use in a sign of their growing cooperation, both governments reported.
Observers said the gift could violate a United Nations resolution that bans the shipment of luxury goods to North Korea in order to pressure the country to abandon its nuclear weapons program.
Kim Yo Jong, Kim’s sister, and another North Korean official received the gift on Sunday, and she expressed her brother’s gratitude to Putin, the Korean Central News Agency (KNCA) reported. Kim Yo Jong noted that the gift reflected the special personal relationship between the rulers, the report said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin gave Kim Jong Un a luxury Aurus Senat limousine that he showed to the North Korean leader when they met for a summit in Russia in September. Kim was shown the Aurus limousine at Russia’s main spaceport.
Kim “liked the car, so the decision was made” to give it to him as a gift, Peskov said, according to the Russian state news agency Tass. “North Korea is our neighbor, our close neighbor.”
Tass reported that Aurus was the first Russian luxury vehicle brand and has been used in motorcades of high-level officials since Putin first used an Aurus limousine for his inauguration ceremony in 2018.
Kim, 40, is known to own several foreign-made luxury cars that have been smuggled into his country despite the UN resolution.
During his visit to Russia, he traveled between the different meeting points in a Maybach limousine that he took with him on one of his trains.
Pyongyang and Moscow have increased their cooperation while locked in separate confrontations with the United States and its allies: North Korea over its nuclear program and Russia over the war with Ukraine.
Rivals accuse North Korea of sending weapons to Russia for its war in Ukraine in exchange for high-tech Russian weapons technologies and other support. Such arms transfers would violate multiple UN resolutions.
Source: With information from AP
