(PatriotWise.com) — Moscow announced on Tuesday that President Vladimir Putin gave North Korea’s Kim Jong Un a luxury limousine, a move some experts say was a violation of a UN resolution banning the import of luxury items to North Korea, the Associated Press reported.
The Russian-made limo was accepted on Sunday by Leader Kim’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, and another senior official. Kim Yo Jong expressed her brother’s thanks to President Putin and said the gift was an expression of the special relationship shared by the two leaders, according to a report from the state-run KCNA.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said President Putin had shown Kim his Aurus Senat limousine when the North Korean leader visited the Russian spaceport Vostochny Cosmodrome in September. Leader Kim had been so taken by the vehicle, that President Putin decided to present him with a similar Aurus Senat as a gift, Peskov said.
According to the state-run Tass news agency, the Aurus was Russia’s first luxury car and has been used by top Kremlin officials since 2018, when President Putin used the limo for his inauguration ceremony.
Kim Jong Un is known to have a fleet of foreign luxury cars that he allegedly smuggled into North Korea in violation of the UN resolution.
As a permanent member of the UN Security Council, Russia voted in favor of the resolution banning the import of luxury goods to North Korea. Putin’s gift of an Aurus Senat violates that ban and shows the lax enforcement of the international sanctions imposed in response to Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile testing.
Russia and North Korea have boosted relations substantially over the last two years as both countries face increased tensions with the United States and its allies.
Following Kim’s visit to Russia last fall, the US and South Korea, along with their regional partners, accused the North of supplying conventional weapons to Russia in its war with Ukraine in exchange for high-tech weapons technology from the Russians. Arms transfers involving North Korea violate multiple UN resolutions.
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