Russian President Vladimir Putin has gifted North Korean leader Kim Jong Un a Russian-made car for his personal use to demonstrate the special relationship between the two countries, North Korea’s state media reported on Tuesday.
The report does not say what type of vehicle it was or how it was transported. But officials said the move could violate a United Nations resolution banning the supply of luxury goods to North Korea in an effort to pressure the country to give up its nuclear weapons.
Kim’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, and another North Korean official received the gift on Sunday, and she conveyed her brother’s gratitude to President Putin, the Korean Central News Agency said.
According to the report, Kim Yo Jong said the gift indicated a special personal relationship between the leaders.
North Korea and Russia have significantly strengthened their cooperative relationship since Chairman Kim visited Russia for a summit meeting with President Putin in September last year.
During Kim’s visit to Russia’s main spaceport, President Putin showed the North Korean leader a special Anrus Sena limousine, with Kim sitting in the back seat.
Aurus is Russia’s first luxury car brand and has been used in motorcades of high-ranking officials, including President Vladimir Putin, since he first used an Anrus limousine at his inauguration ceremony in 2018, according to Russia’s state-run TASS news agency.
Mr. Kim, 40, is known to own a large number of foreign-made luxury cars that are believed to have been smuggled into his country in violation of United Nations resolutions.
During his visit to Russia, he traveled from meeting venue to meeting venue in a Maybach limousine loaded into his own vehicle.
During a trip to Russia in early 2019, Kim had two limousines waiting at the Vladivostok train station: a Mercedes-Maybach S600 Pullman Guard and a Mercedes-Maybach S62.
The S600 Pullman Guard was also reportedly used during two summit meetings with then-President Donald Trump, in Singapore in 2018 and Vietnam in 2019.
In 2018, Kim returned home in a black Mercedes limousine after meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in at a shared village on the South Korean border.
Mr. Kim’s ownership of such an expensive foreign-made limousine shows the extent of the holes in international sanctions against North Korea.
Even though Russia, as a permanent member of the Security Council, could have vetoed the resolution, it voted in favor of the ban on supplying luxury goods to North Korea.
The growing ties between North Korea and Russia come as North Korea pursues its nuclear program and Russia is locked in separate conflicts with the United States and its allies over its long war with Ukraine.
The United States, South Korea and its partners have accused North Korea of sending conventional weapons to Russia for the Ukraine war in exchange for Russia’s high-tech weapons technology and other aid.
After the foreign minister returned from his visit to Russia in January, North Korean state media reported that President Putin expressed his desire to visit North Korea as soon as possible.
