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Welcome aboard Kim Jong Un’s party boat

It has waterslides. yes, plural.

By Aspen Pflughoeft

Relaxing aboard a luxury yacht seems like a far-off dream for many of us — not so much for North Korea ’s Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un .

• Recent reports and satellite imagery show that the dictator may be enjoying his luxury yacht for the first time in multiple years, reported The New York Post .
• The party boat was spotted near Kim’s Wonsan mansion compound along the eastern coast of North Korea earlier this week, reported NK News .

What is Kim Jong Un’s party boat like?

Kim’s Princess-brand luxury yacht is decked out with twin twisting waterslides, an Olympic-size swimming pool and a multistory lounge, per NK News.

• The party boat is 260 feet long and recently underwent repairs and a remodel, according to The New York Post .
• NK News described the yacht as a “ floating amusement park. ”

The yacht was last seen at the Wonsan mansion in 2019 but returned to the mansion this week. The ship’s arrival coincided with days that Kim did not make any media appearances, reported The New York Post.

• The timing suggests that Kim has been “ chilling out ” on the yacht or possibly recovering from sickness since the dictator has reportedly lost some weight recently, said The New York Post.
• The “ famously reclusive and rotund ” leader has lost up to 44 pounds recently, according to The New York Post. Kim’s sudden slimness has fueled speculation about his health and his potential successor, who remains unnamed.

Kim’s family, friends or other trusted associates could be at the Wonsan mansion, which has previously hosted guests, per NK News.

• Another smaller boat was docked at Kim’s Hodo Peninsula palace in early July. This palace is 10 miles up the coast from the Wonsan mansion, reported The New York Post.

What’s going on in North Korea?

While the leader of North Korea may be relaxing, the rest of the country does not have that luxury. Conditions in the country have seemed increasingly concerning in recent weeks, reported The New York Post.

• The country is facing a food shortage due to failed crops, international sanctions and a strict COVID-19 lockdown, reported the Deseret News .
• North Korea has continued to claim that it has zero coronavirus cases. However, last month, Kim admitted that the country faced a “ grave incident ” related to the pandemic, per Deseret News .

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Is Kim Jong Un taking his luxury yacht out for vacation?

Satellite photos show the kim family’s 80-meter cruise ship out at sea..

Is North Korean leader Kim Jong Un taking a family vacation?

Satellite imagery shows that the Kim family’s 80-meter (262-foot) cruise ship – complete with a waterslide and an Olympic-sized swimming pool – is out at sea.

Some experts say Kim's recent public appearance on land makes it very unlikely that he was on board but others said he may have been.

According to satellite photos taken June 27 and July 5 by Planet Labs, an American commercial satellite imaging company, the luxury cruise ship was identified as sailing off North Korea’s east coast near Wonsan, Kangwon province.

Kim is known to use this ship for recreational activities with his family or to entertain foreign VIPs.

Bruce Songhak Chung, a researcher at the South Korea-based Korean Institute for Security and Strategy who analyzed the satellite photos, told RFA Korean that it is likely that either Kim himself, or his family, took the cruise ship to the family villa on the Kalma peninsula.

“Only North Korean leaders and their families exclusively use luxury cruise ships,” he said. “As the summer vacation season approaches, it is presumed that General Secretary Kim may have visited a private villa in Wonsan to spend the summer with his wife Ri Sol Ju and daughter Kim Ju Ae.”

Chung noted that there was no way to tell whether Kim was on board, but that he might have been, considering that he had just finished leading an important meeting of the ruling Korean Workers’ Party’s Central Committee.

The plenary meeting lasted from June 28 to July 1, and on July 2, Kim visited factories and other government institutions with government officials. This makes it less likely that he was on board on June 27.

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The cruise ship may have been on a test voyage in the earlier image, ahead of Kim’s vacation, said Cho Han-Bum, a researcher at the South Korea-based Korea Institute for National Unification.

He also noted that Kim was not with his wife Ri Sol Ju or daughter Kim Ju Ae during his public appearances.

“It is possible that Kim Ju Ae, Ri Sol Ju and other families have already gone on summer vacation,” said Cho. “Therefore, there is a possibility that Chairman Kim Jong Un, who finished the plenary meeting, completed local guidance and joined his family.”

Getting around sanctions

Currently, North Korea has a total of four luxury cruise ships – with lengths of 50, 55, 60, and 80 meters (164-262 feet) – for Kim’s exclusive use.

These cruise ships were obtained in the 1990s, during the rule of his father and predecessor, Kim Jong Il, before sanctions were imposed.

The sanctions, enacted after North Korea’s first nuclear test in 2006, are meant to deprive Pyongyang of cash and resources that could be funneled into its nuclear and missile programs.

They are also intended to prevent the Kim family and other North Korean elites from getting their hands on luxury goods.

But they still trickle in. Recently, Kim Jong Un imported luxury cars, including a Russian-made Aurus Senat and a German-made Mercedes-Benz Maybach.

The recent surge in the value of the U.S. dollar against the won has made food prices in North Korea rise and has negatively affected the economy in general, but the Kim family continues to live the high life, said Cho.

“The problem with international sanctions against North Korea is that they have an effect on the entire national economy, but do not affect the upper class,” he said. “They import as many luxury goods as they want using various agents or aliases.”

He said sanctions are unable to target only the country’s leadership.

“As public sentiment deteriorates, it may lead to a weakening of Chairman Kim Jong Un’s support base, but the current sanctions against North Korea are not enough to prevent the Kim family from living a luxurious life.”

Translated by Claire S. Lee. Edited by Eugene Whong.

Satellite images show luxury yachts around coastal resort where North Korea's Kim Jong Un could be staying

Kim's seaside compound in Wonsan is dotted with guest villas and serviced by a private beach, basketball court, and private train station. It also has a horse track

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Satellite imagery showing recent movements of luxury boats often used by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his entourage near Wonsan provide further indications he has been at the coastal resort, according to experts who monitor the reclusive regime.

Speculation about Kim’s health and location erupted after his unprecedented absence from April 15 celebrations to mark the birthday of his late grandfather and North Korea’s founder, Kim Il Sung .

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On Tuesday, North Korea-monitoring website NK PRO reported commercial satellite imagery showed boats often used by Kim had made movements in patterns that suggested he or his entourage may be in the Wonsan area.

That followed a report last week by a U.S.-based North Korea monitoring project, 38 North , which reported satellite images showed what was believed to be Kim’s personal train was parked at a station reserved for his use at the villa in Wonsan.

Officials in South Korea and the United States say it is plausible Kim may be staying there, possibly to avoid exposure to the new coronavirus, and have expressed skepticism of media reports he had some kind of serious illness.

They caution, however, that Kim’s health and location are closely guarded secrets and reliable information is difficult to obtain in North Korea.

The last time official media in North Korea reported on Kim’s whereabouts was when he presided over a meeting on April 11, but there have been near-daily reports of him sending letters and diplomatic messages.

Kim’s seaside compound in Wonsan, on the country’s east coast, is dotted with guest villas and serviced by a private beach, basketball court, and private train station, according to experts and satellite imagery. An airstrip was bulldozed last year to build a horse riding track, while a boathouse nearby shelters Kim’s Princess 95 luxury yacht, valued at around $7 million in 2013.

“It’s one of his favourite houses,” said Michael Madden, a North Korea leadership expert at the U.S.-based Stimson Center, who has compared Kim’s affinity for Wonsan to U.S. President Donald Trump’s favoured resort, Mar-a-Lago in Florida.

Madden said Kim is believed to have about 13 significant compounds around the country, though he appears to only regularly use about half of them.

“All of them are set up to serve as the leader’s headquarters, so they are all equipped for him to run the country,” he said.

Wonsan is one of the larger and better appointed compounds, but it also has a useful location that allows Kim to easily travel to other areas along the coast, or return quickly to Pyongyang in his private train or along a special highway designated for use only by the Kim family or top officials, Madden said.

Wonsan also holds symbolic power for the Kim dynasty: It was there Kim Il Sung, who helped found North Korea at the end of Japanese colonial rule in 1945, first landed with Soviet troops to take over the country.

Wonsan is believed by some experts to be Kim Jong Un’s birthplace, partly because he spent his early years at the family’s palace there, although official history has never confirmed where he was born.

The Japanese chef Kenji Fujimoto, who worked for the Kims and visited Wonsan, recounted in his memoirs how a young Kim Jong Un described rollerblading, playing basketball, riding jet skis and playing in the pool at the compound.

Later, photos showed Kim sipping drinks there with American basketball player Dennis Rodman when the star visited North Korea in 2013.

The Wonsan area has also become emblematic of Kim’s strategy for survival based on a combination of economic development, tourism, and nuclear weapons. He is rebuilding the city of 360,000 people and wants to turn it into a billion-dollar tourist hotspot.

In recent months, the project has been repeatedly delayed, undermined in part by international sanctions imposed over the North’s nuclear and missile programs, which have restricted its ability to seek foreign investment.

Wonsan has also been the scene of some of Kim’s renewed military drills and missile tests, which he resumed amid increasing frustration with a lack of progress in denuclearization talks with the United States and South Korea.

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NEWS... BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT

Satellite images reveal Kim Jong-Un superyacht at secret beach resort

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Satellite images show one of Kim Jong-Un ’s mysterious superyachts parked close to a secret beach resort off the North Korean coast.

The huge 180ft (55m) vessel was spotted on the Hodo Peninsula, north of Wonsan, between August 3 and August 5.

The sighting, by Planet Labs, comes after the dictator returned to public view to declare victory over Covid , following what is believed to be an almost fortnight-long absence.  

It is thought to be the first time the superyacht – which features a distinctive red roof – has arrived at the resort, which is only accessible by sea or small roads far from major cities.

The yacht’s roof was painted green when it was spotted at one of the tyrant’s coastal mansions in Wonsan in April 2020.

Earlier the boat appeared at a separate mansion owned by the North Korean leader on the Hodo Peninsula in July 2019.  

It was apparently seen anchored at Sin Island, off the coast of Wonsan, while Kim took a hiatus from public life in July, according to The Sun .

He has an even larger superyacht measuring 195ft (60m) – which is said to have been taken out of storage and placed in front of his main Wonsan beach compound between August 5 and 10.

The vessel, dubbed a floating amusement park, includes two waterslides, an Olympic-sized swimming pool and a multi-storey lounge.

Kim has become increasingly reclusive as the notoriously secret country battles the Covid pandemic.

Yesterday he claimed North Korea’s widely disputed success in containing the virus in three months would be hailed a global miracle.

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But his own sister suggested he had succumbed to the outbreak – which he blamed on patients touching ‘alien things’ from South Korea.  

However the pandemic has not hindered his ambitions to wage war on the West – as he vowed to use nuclear weapons if tensions with South Korea and the US escalate into a war .

Metro.co.uk exclusively revealed satellite images showing North Korea’s huge underground arms lair – said to spread over 176,000 sq ft.

The secretive Kanggye General Tractor Plant is thought to employ up to 20,000 people in what is widely regarded as the engine room of the rogue state’s defence infrastructure.

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Kim Jong-un dodges public for 12 days relaxing on mega-yacht amid North Korean famine

Nuke-mad dictator kim jong-un's 180ft-long luxury yacht has been spotted in satellite images over hodo peninsula, a secluded bay just north of his family home at wonsan.

• 21:10, 10 Aug 2022

North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un has been holidaying on a custom-built yacht while his nation starves during a severe crop famine, according to satellite images.

Kim's 180ft-long luxury vessel was spotted in satellite images over Hodo Peninsula, a secluded bay just north of his family home at Wonsan.

His flashy boat was accompanied by another 60ft-long vessel.

Floods are continuing to batter North Korea, ripping through the country's farms and worsening an already severe food shortage.

Kim has not been seen in public for 12 days while the waters continue to rage through the country's streets and homes.

Independent outlet NK News reported he was also not seen for 19 days in July.

The Hodo beach where the luxury ship was spotted is one of Kim's favourite locations - a remote stretch that is completely isolated and can't be accessed via main roads.

The aerial images show a red-roofed structure that has been seen overhead during several of Kim's getaways.

When he visited Wonsan recently, it was seen anchored off the coast - where the nuke-mad despot has his own marina.

During a holiday in April, it was repaired at nearby Tae Island.

Earlier in 2022 it was reported North Korea's office workers and factory labourers were dispatched to farming areas to join the struggle against drought, amid concerns over prolonged food shortages.

The North Korean had called for measures to improve a tense food situation caused by the coronavirus pandemic and typhoons.

Newspaper Rodong Sinmun said government officials were among those sent in an attempt to ease the dire situation.

The media outlet reported: "Systematic, aggressive efforts are under way to raise public awareness and mobilise all available capabilities to prevent crop damages from drought in advance."

Last year the supreme leader advised North Koreans to tighten their belts and eat less for the next few years because of food shortages.

The secretive state closed its border with China at the start of 2020 due to Covid with particular fear in North Korea what damage the virus could do with its limited health system.

A resident told Radio Free Asia (RFA) : “Two weeks ago, they told the neighbourhood watch unit meeting our food emergency would continue until 2025.

“Authorities emphasised the possibility of reopening customs between North Korea and China before 2025 was very slim.

“The food situation right now is already clearly an emergency, and the people are struggling with shortages.

“When the authorities tell them that they need to conserve and consume less food until 2025… they can do nothing but feel great despair."

Other helpful advice dished out last year included eating swans .

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