Hacking banks and selling endangered species, Viagra and crystal meth: How Kim Jong-un affords a nuclear programme and a lavish lifestyle while North Korea starves amid supposedly crippling sanctions
Illegal dealings in Pyongyang said to be bringing in up to a billion dollars a year
Kim Jong-un’s cronies are also supposedly counterfeiting bank notes for money
Kim Jong-un spent an estimated £33million on statues of his family back in 2015
The UN says two million North Koreans are barely surviving on measly hand-outs
By GARETH DAVIES
DAILYMAIL.COM
4 September 2017
While North Korea is meant to be shackled by crippling sanctions, its dictator still manages to fund a nuclear programme and his own lavish lifestyle.
Kim Jong-un supposedly does this by hacking banks, selling endangered species, Viagra and crystal meth as well as through a number of other illicit methods.
The illegal dealings could reportedly be bringing the isolated country’s leader as much as a whopping billion dollars a year while the nation remains one of just 34 in the world relying on UN handouts to feed its people.
Hundreds of millions are reportedly dragged into Pyongyang by deals involving selling weapons and counterfeit banknotes, according to CNN.
Talking to the news outlet, Republican Representative Doug Lamborn, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said: ‘North Korea has blatantly violated international law with their nuclear testing, illicit sales, and the ramping up of their nuclear program.’
These huge sums of money go towards the dictator’s relentless nuclear development as well as his penchant for alcohol, Swiss cheese and luxury cars and yachts.
The illicit money-making scheme is reportedly run by a covert department called the Central Committee Bureau 39 of the Korean Workers’ Party, which is more commonly known by its code name Room 39, according to the Express.
Despite vast sums of money being generated illegally, the country is still technically one of the world’s poorest.
The UN aimed to take a big bite out of the North Korean economy earlier this month by banning the North from exporting coal, iron, lead and seafood products.
Together, those are worth about a third of the country’s £2.3billion in exports last year.
The US also suggested some other ideas earlier this summer, including air and maritime restrictions and restricting oil to North Korea’s military and weapons programs.
However, Russian ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told the council that ‘addressing the issues plaguing the Korean Peninsula through sanction pressure alone is impossible’ because ‘that path does not propose any options for engaging North Korea in constructive negotiations’.
Russia and China, which is still a trade partner to North Korea, have both proposed a two-pronged approach.
North Korea would suspend its nuclear and missile development, and the US and South Korea would suspend their joint military exercises, which they say are defensive but Pyongyang views as a rehearsal for invasion.
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