North Korea imported at least $640 million (£493 million) worth of luxury goods from China last year, in defiance of UN sanctions outlawing such trade over North Korea’s nuclear and missile programmes, a South Korean politician said on Monday.
N orth Korea imported at least $640 million (£493 million) worth of luxury goods from China last year, in defiance of UN sanctions outlawing such trade over North Korea’s nuclear and missile programmes, a South Korean politician said on Monday.
The United States has urged strict implementation of sanctions as part of a « maximum pressure » campaign which Washington has credited with bringing impoverished North Korea to the negotiating table.
But there have been signs the campaign has been losing steam since North Korea suspended nuclear and missile tests and leader Kim Jong-un vowed steps towards denuclearisation at a US-North Korean summit in June – and as China and Russia called for relaxed sanctions.
« Kim has bought lavish items from China and other places like a seaplane for not only his own family, and also expensive musical instruments, high-quality TVs, sedans, liquor, watches and fur as gifts for the elites who prop up his regime, » opposition MP Yoon Sang-hyun said in a statement.
« With the growing loophole, Kim would be able to near his goal of neutralising sanctions soon without giving up the nuclear weapons. »
L ast year, North Korea spent at least $640 million on luxury goods from China, according to Yoon.
