Defying Sanctions in Style: Pyongyang’s Elite Flaunt Luxury Brands, from Gucci to Sulwhasoo
Luxurious Life of North Korea’s Upper Class
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A night view of the houses in Gyeongnu-dong, where Pyongyang’s upper class lives. Riverview apartments sell for between $100,000 and $150,000 with occupancy certificates. Korean Central News Agency
As economic polarization deepens in North Korea after COVID-19, Pyongyang’s upper class is found to be engaging in ”luxury shopping” as if making fun of the international community’s sanctions against North Korea. On the other hand, ordinary people continue to live in poverty, where it is difficult to even eat their own meals.
A source familiar with the internal situation in North Korea told Maeil Business newspaper: “Pyongyang’s upper class buys luxury goods such as Gucci and Bulgari bags, French cosmetics, and Swiss watches without hesitation.” The source also said: “Expensive smuggled Korean Sulwhasoo cosmetics and Cuckoo electric rice cookers are also gaining popularity.”
According to the report of the expert panel of the United Nations Security Council’s North Korea Sanctions Committee, luxury goods entering North Korea were previously mainly imported via cargo ships departing from Dalian Port in Liaoning Province, China, or international trains between North Korea and China.
However, recently, as the international community and China intensify their repression, it has been reported that the number of cases of North Korean workers in China, where screening is relatively weak, being brought back with their cargo is increasing.
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Kim Jong-un’s daughter Joo-ae wears a 2.5 million won “Christian Dior” jacket. Korean Central News Agency
Imported luxury clothes, sunglasses, German Scotch whisky and vodka are on sale at the Ryugyung Geumbit and Daesung department stores in Pyongyang.
This phenomenon is believed to have been influenced by the fact that North Korea’s economy is improving due to the special effects of the war in Ukraine and increased trade between North Korea and China and North Korea and Russia.
According to the “Estimated Results of North Korea’s Economic Growth Rate for 2023” announced by the Bank of Korea in July, North Korea’s real gross domestic product (GDP) increased by 3.1 percent last year from a year earlier.
The trade volume between North Korea and China last month, recently released by the General Administration of Customs of China, was $177 million (about 235.7 billion won), up 22 percent from the previous month and rising for the first time in four months.
Pyongyang’s upper class is enjoying Western-style hobbies such as horse riding, swimming and yoga at luxury entertainment facilities. It was also revealed that late last month North Korea imported 24 horses of the expensive “Orlov” breed from Russia’s Far Eastern Primorsky Krai to use in this type of sport for the wealthy.
It is known that the number of people who keep “pet dogs” is increasing among the upper classes. This is a behavior far from reality, where ordinary residents struggle to raise chickens in their apartments and put eggs on the table.
Pyongyang’s upper class lives in apartments in the city center priced between $100,000 and $150,000 and enjoys an affluent lifestyle, with a family of four spending $200 (about 270,000 won) per meal.
In North Korea, the sale of land and houses is prohibited, so residents secretly trade “occupancy certificates,” which give the right to occupy a home. In high-end residential areas of Pyongyang, real estate prices are so high that the price of a work certificate can reach 200 million won.