SEOUL, South Korea: Russian President Vladimir Putin has gifted North Korean leader Kim Jong Un a Russian-made luxury limousine for his personal use, both countries announced Tuesday, in another sign of their expanding cooperation.
Observers said the shipment violates a UN resolution that bans supplying luxury items to North Korea, in an attempt to pressure the country to abandon its nuclear weapons.
Kim鈥檚 sister, Kim Yo Jong, and another senior North Korean official accepted the gift Sunday and she conveyed her brother鈥檚 thanks to Putin, the Korean Central News Agency said. Kim Yo Jong said the gift showed the special personal relationship between the leaders, the report said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin gave Kim Jong Un a high-end 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 Anrus limousine at Russia鈥檚 main spaceport.
Kim 鈥渓iked the car, and so the decision was made鈥� to present it to him as a gift, Peskov said, according to Russia鈥檚 state-run Tass news agency. 鈥淣orth Korea is our neighbor, our close neighbor.鈥�
Tass earlier reported that Aurus was the first Russian luxury car brand, and it鈥檚 been used in motorcades of top officials since Putin first used an Anrus limousine during his inauguration ceremony in 2018.
Kim, 40, is known to possess many foreign-made luxury cars believed to have been smuggled into his country in breach of the UN resolution.
During his Russia visit, he traveled between meeting sites in a Maybach limousine that was brought with him on one of his special train carriages.
During an earlier Russia trip in 2019, Kim had two limos waiting for him at Vladivostok station 鈥� a Mercedes-Maybach S600 Pullman Guard and a Maybach S62. He also reportedly used the S600 Pullman Guard for his two summits with then-President Donald Trump in Singapore in 2018 and Vietnam in 2019. In 2018, Kim used a black Mercedes limousine to return home after a meeting with South Korea鈥檚 then-President Moon Jae-in at a shared Korean border village.
Kim鈥檚 possession of expensive foreign limousines shows the porousness of international sanctions on the North. Russia, a permanent Security Council member, voted for the ban on supplying luxury goods to North Korea, along with other international sanctions adopted in response to the North鈥檚 nuclear and missile tests.
North Korea and Russia have boosted their cooperation significantly as they are locked in separate confrontations with the United States and its allies 鈥� North Korea for its nuclear program and Russia for its war with Ukraine. Russia, along with China 鈥� another UN Security Council member 鈥� has repeatedly stymied the US and others鈥� bids to toughen UN sanctions on North Korea over its prohibited missile tests in recent years.
The US, South Korea and their partners accuse North Korea of sending conventional arms to Russia for its war in Ukraine, in return for high-tech Russian weapons technologies and other support. Such arms transfers would violate multiple UN resolutions banning any weapons trade involving North Korea.
After its foreign minister returned home following a Russia visit in January, the North鈥檚 state media reported Putin expressed his willingness to visit the North at an early date.