Kim Jong-un's daughter wears £1,500 Dior coat as North Koreans suffer
Kim Jong-un’s daughter has been spotted wearing what appears to be a stylish $1,900 Christian Dior jacket, amid reports of poverty and starvation across North Korea.
Kim Ju-ae, who is believed to be the 10-year-old second child of the North Korean dictator, was pictured standing behind her smiling father as they watched the launch of a Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile earlier this month.
The images were released by the Korean Central News Agency and are the latest evidence of Ms Kim shadowing her father’s movements.
Ms Kim’s increasingly high profile has given rise to suggestions that she is being groomed to eventually become the fourth generation of the Kim family to assume control of the world’s only dynastic communist state.
South Korean media pointed out that the hooded winter jacket typically retails for $1,900 (£1,550) and is a typical demonstration of the Kim family’s preference for the finer things in life.
Kim Jong-un is understood to have inherited his father’s lavish taste in food, drink and clothes.
Ryu Hyun-woo, who was North Korean ambassador to Kuwait before he defected in September 2019, told The Korea Times that a top priority for diplomats stationed abroad was to obtain luxury items for the leadership in Pyongyang.
That included the Swiss-made IWC Portofino watch that Mr Kim was seen wearing in 2020 as he broke into tears on the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Workers’ Party of Korea, calling on ordinary North Koreans to endure the hardships the nation faced.
The watch seen on the North Korean leader’s wrist typically sells for more than £10,000.
The Kim family’s spending spree coincides with reports that the food supply situation in North Korea is worsening rapidly .
International aid agencies have repeatedly warned in recent months that stocks of staple foodstuffs are running dangerously low, storms and flooding have damaged crops, sanctions have made it impossible to obtain chemical fertilisers, fuel and parts for agricultural equipment and the border with China remains firmly closed.
As desperation sets in, border troops have been given a shoot-to-kill order for anyone attempting to flee to China and live ammunition has been distributed to cooperative farms to protect grain stockpiles.
Earlier this month, it was reported that North Korean orphanages are facing an influx of children abandoned by parents who believe they have a better chance of surviving if they are in the care of the state.
Images of Kim Ju-ae are, however, arousing secret resentment, Radio Free Asia reported in February. Quoting sources inside North Korea, RFA said more and more people there were becoming “upset” at footage of a plump and immaculately dressed 10-year-old.
“People are saying things like, ‘She must be eating so well, her face is so white and plump like the moon,’” one source said. “Most people aren’t able to eat properly so their cheekbones stick out from their faces even more than before.”
