An extraordinary sum of 644 million USD from North Korea’s
coffers has been used to purchase exorbitant luxury goods, according to a South
Korean lawmaker.
These findings are based on a list of goods that are
restricted from being sent to North Korea by Seoul as they are deemed luxury
items, said ruling Saenuri Party’s Yoon Sang Hyun, a member of the
parliamentary Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee, on Tuesday. The
numbers were amassed using customs’ records between the North and China, as
well as reports on Pyongyang’s foreign trade trends.
According to data from Yoon, some of the goods that have
seen an increase in imports are alcohol, watches, bags, cosmetics, gems, and
carpet. “The spike appears to come from growing supplies to department stores
and markets to cater to the privileged upper-class, as well as to hand out
gifts to appease party and military officials key to supporting the leadership,”
the lawmaker said.
He added, “Dogs are not on the list for luxury items, but
some dozens of purebred dogs such as Shi Tzus and Shepherd breeds from Europe
have been brought into the country along with pet care products. This has
totaled to an annual 200,000 USD just on pets.”
“With this money spent on luxury goods, North Korea could
have bought more than 3.6 million tons of corn [176 USD/ton] and 1.5 million
tons of rice [425 USD/ton],” Yoon said, emphasizing, “It would have been more
than enough to make up for the 340,000-ton food shortage for the grain year
2013-2014 estimated by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization [FAO] and
World Food Programme [WFP].”
The lawmaker added the money allocated to such goods during
Kim Jong Eun’s leadership has doubled from his father’s expendites, which stood
at roughly 300 million USD per year.
