What luxury bag is Kim Jong-un carrying? His female secretary bag is also a hot topic

It is pointed out that although North Korea has cracked down on foreign expensive and luxury goods as ‘bourgeois culture’ and ‘anti-socialist behavior’, top officials including Chairman Kim still show their ‘love for luxury goods’.

NK News reported that a photo from the Korean Central News Agency on the 16th confirmed that the bag carried by North Korean Foreign Minister Choi Sun-hee is a rare product from the Italian luxury brand Gucci.

The photo captured the appearance of Choi Sun-hee, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and other officials during Kim Jong-un’s visit to the Komsomolsk-na-Amure glass factory in Khabarovsk Krai, Russia, on the 15th.

The media explained that the bag carried by Choi Sun-hee is made of ostrich leather, which is now discontinued, but is being traded for $10,000 (approximately 13.2 million won) on an Icelandic second-hand goods trading website.

NK News quoted a report by Yonhap News Agency and reported that Kim Yo-jong, Kim Jong-un’s sister, also appeared carrying a black ‘Lady Dior’ handbag from the French luxury brand Christian Dior during her visit to the fighter aircraft factory.

The bag is made of calf leather and is currently sold for $7,000 (approximately 9.25 million won) on the Christian Dior website, the media added.

However, among the entourage, Hyun Song-wol, Deputy Director of the Workers’ Party of Korea’s Propaganda and Agitation Department, was seen carrying a cheap-looking bag that appears to be of Chinese origin, and NK News reported that the bag is being sold for $8 (approximately 10,000 won) on a Chinese website.

For several years, North Korea has designated foreign luxury brand products as “weapons used by capitalist countries to destroy North Korea” and has been cracking down on them.

In addition, according to UN Security Council Resolution 1718, adopted in response to North Korea’s first nuclear test in 2006, the export of luxury goods to North Korea is prohibited.

However, it has been repeatedly captured that Chairman Kim carries a luxury watch from the Swiss brand IWC, and his wife Ri Sol-ju and daughter Kim Ju-ae have been seen wearing Dior handbags and coats.

Furthermore, NK News reported that Kim Choi Sun-hee was seen carrying a Bulgari bag during a meeting with a Chinese delegation that visited North Korea in July.

The media pointed out that during the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 10 million North Korean residents suffered from hunger and malnutrition, citing a UN report, and highlighted the extreme disparity in living standards between the top officials and the general population in North Korea.

Nazanin Zadeh-Cummings, Deputy Director of the Ditchley Foundation’s Asia Leadership Centre in Australia, said, “It is not uncommon for the elite class in that country to wear designer products that ordinary citizens cannot afford, but (in the case of North Korea) it reminds us of the enormous gap between the super elites and the average North Korean’s life.”