North Korea food deficient, but Kim Jong Un splurging on luxury

Zee Media Bureau/Supriya Jha Pyongyang: For a nation that has to depend on external food aid to feed its people, it is brazen that its leader spends millions of dollars on the regime`s `luxury needs`. While the country is teeming with over 2.8 million vulnerable people waiting to be fed, a UN report reveals that leader Kim Jong Un spent a whopping amount of $645.8 million on luxury, more than double the amount his father, the late Kim Jong Il splurged on luxury, reported the Telegraph. The report by the United Nations Commission of Inquiry into Pyongyang`s human rights record has already highlighted the atrocities including rape, torture, abduction, etc meted out to the people by the regime. The luxurious items include high-end Mercedes-Benz cars, exotic pianos and pets, perfumes, bathroom fittings, etc. The report also quotes a defected ex-North Korean official as saying that Kim cashed in on the illegal ivory trafficking and underground alcohol sale to Islamist countries to cater to his luxurious demands.

It must be noted that North Korea is one of the 34 nations in the world that require external aid to feed its people, as the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation said in October last year. The FAO report last year pegged the nation`s food deficit of 340,000 tons.