North Korea's Kim Jong Un rides armored car gifted by Vladimir Putin – Newsweek

North Korea’s luxury-loving leader was driven for the first time in a new limousine recently gifted to him by his Russian counterpart, according to the country’s state media.

Kim Jong Un used the “special private car” at a public event on March 15, his powerful sister, Kim Yo Jong, said in a statement issued the next day via the official Korean Central News Agency, which expressed the regime’s “heartfelt thanks” to the Kremlin.

“The special function of the private car is perfect and can be thoroughly trusted,”, the deputy spokesperson for the Workers’ Party said, calling it “clear proof” that North Korea‘s friendship was Russia had reached “a new high stage.”

Kim Jong Un, who was reportedly educated in Switzerland, is known for his fondness for luxury watches, yachts, planes and cars.

The North Korean leader and President Vladimir Putin have been increasingly open about their deepening ties ever since the North Korean leader’s September visit to Vostochny Cosmodrome, the main spaceport in Russia‘s Far East.

It was during last year’s visit that Kim Jong Un showed an interest in Putin’s personal vehicle, the Russia-made Aurus Senat, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said last month.

“Kim liked this car,” Peskov said, so Putin decided to give him one, in a possible violation of a 2017 U.N. resolution—backed by Russia at the time—that prohibited the transfer to North Korea of all transportation vehicles.

The Kim-Putin friendship is believed to be far from symbolic: South Korean intelligence reports said last fall that Pyongyang likely received technical assistance from Russia when the North launched first its first spy satellite into orbit.

And the United States and its allies have accused North Korea of shipping millions of rounds of artillery shells to Russia and an unknown quantity of ballistic missiles, both of which have allegedly been fired in the ongoing war in Ukraine.

With Kim Jong Un’s reclusive regime facing further isolation for repeated missile tests that violate multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions, long-time North Korea watchers say he could ramp up provocative military moves this year in order to secure concessions on sanctions from the United States.

Jung Pak, the top U.S. official for North Korea affairs at the State Department, told the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think tank earlier this month that Pyongyang had become a “willing supplier” of arms to Moscow, in a decision she said was largely motivated by self-preservation.

“At this point, we don’t assess that Kim Jong Un has changed his primary goal—the preservation of his regime—or the means by which he hopes to achieve this—the international acceptance of the [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] as a nuclear weapons power,” Pak said.

“What has changed is that Kim seems to have decided he cannot achieve his primary goals through negotiations with the United States or the Republic of Korea. He’s viewing the world through a new Cold War lens, in which the DPRK can benefit from aligning more closely with Russia and the [People’s Republic of China],” she said.

On Monday, the KCNA said Kim Jong Un congratulated Putin for retaining the presidency. Results announced by Russia’s electoral commission showed the long-time Russian leader winning reelection on Sunday by a record post-Soviet landslide, with no serious opposition.