If you’ve ever wondered what it would be
like to have unlimited wealth and power, you’re
definitely not alone.
Who hasn’t dreamed of living like an all-powerful
leader, with endless wealth, surrounded by
people catering to your every whim?
To find out what it’s really like to live
like the wealthy dictator...er, we mean, Supreme
Leader (n: light sarcasm) … of an isolated
Hermit Kingdom, let’s take a look at how
rich Kim Jong Un actually is, and how North
Korea’s Dear Leader really spends his fortune.
The secretive nation of North Korea is home
to twenty-five million citizens who, for the
most part, live in extreme poverty and isolation.
The average North Korean only earns around
two-thousand dollars a year, and it’s estimated
that upwards of forty percent of the population
is severely undernourished.
It’s no secret that Kim Jong Un is the richest
man in North Korea, but exactly how rich is
he?
Well, that’s a difficult question to answer.
North Korea is often referred to as a Hermit
Kingdom because of how isolated and cut-off
from the rest of the world the country is.
The leaders of North Korea control every detail
of their citizen’s lives, including the
media and internet access, so getting accurate
information about the secretive country is
difficult, to say the least.
No official estimates of Kim Jong Un’s wealth
exist, so he was excluded from the Forbes
list of the world’s richest people.
However, Forbes did list him as the thirty-sixth
most powerful man in the world, since he has
absolute control over his country and its
people.
In 2013, a joint South Korean and American
investigation set out to determine exactly
how much Kim Jong Un is worth.
Based on what little information they could
scrape together after months of tireless research,
they determined that Kim Jong Un has a net
worth of at least five billion dollars, hidden
away under false names in secret foreign bank
accounts in places like Austria, Switzerland,
Russia and Liechtenstein, just to name a few.
The bulk of his fortune appears to be held
in China, where many accounts with millions
of dollars in cash in them can be traced back
to the Supreme Leader and his family.
If this estimate is right, a five billion
dollar net worth would rank him near number
three-hundred and twenty on the Forbes list
of the world’s richest people, alongside
some of the world’s most successful financiers
and media moguls.
Kim Jong Un was certainly born into a rich
and powerful family, but he never expected
to have the level of wealth and power that
he now enjoys.
As the second son of his father, previous
Supreme Leader Kim Jong Il, his older brother
Kim Jong-chul, was favored to be the next
leader of North Korea.
But all that changed when Kim Jong-chul was
caught trying to enter Japan with a false
passport.
He claimed that he simply wanted to visit
Disneyland in Tokyo, but the damage was done
- he had embarrassed the North Korean regime,
and his position as favorite son went to his
younger brother, Kim Jong Un, who many considered
to be a carbon-copy of his father.
Kim Jong Un also had another half-brother,
Kim Jong-nam, who had enjoyed his father’s
favor for a few years.
This must have made him a threat in Kim Jong
Un’s eyes, because after he came to power,
Kim Jong-nam was attacked with a nerve agent
at a Malasian airport and assassinated in
2017.
So, now that Kim Jong Un has secured his hold
on his unlimited power and wealth, how does
he actually go about spending his fortune?
Does he spend it on improving the lives of
his people and bringing North Korea out of
the dark ages?
Umm...no.
Kim Jong Un was raised in a lifestyle of luxury,
and his tastes have only gotten more exorbitant
since he took power.
Kim Jong Un attended high school at a Swiss
boarding school under a false name, and that
may be where he developed his penchant for
luxury watches.
According to some sources, Kim Jong Un has
a personal watch collection worth more than
eight million dollars.
Kim and his wife are often seen wearing expensive
watches, and he frequently uses luxury timepieces
as gifts for high-ranking Party members.
In recent years, though, Kim has had trouble
getting his fix of luxury of watches from
Switzerland, after the UN banned the export
of luxury goods to North Korea in reaction
to their nuclear program.
Former schoolmates of Kim Jong Un, who knew
him back then as Pak Un, the son of an embassy
worker, also remember his obsession with basketball.
Apparently, basketball is a family tradition
- Kim’s father Kim Jong Il was a huge Chicago
Bulls fan, and he even tried - unsuccessfully
- to arrange for Bulls superstar Michael Jordan
to visit the Hermit Kingdom during his reign.
Kim Jong Un must have felt like he was living
in a childhood dream come true in 2013 when
basketball legend and Hall of Famer Dennis
Rodman made his first visit to North Korea.
The controversial star has been back to North
Korea many times since, and has called himself
a “friend for life” of the Supreme Leader.
While upwards of 40% of the population of
North Korea is undernourished, Kim Jong Un
enjoys stuffing himself full of the finest
food from around the world.
It’s estimated that he spends millions of
dollars a year feeding himself and his innermost
circle with the world’s best cuisine.
Kim favors the finest-quality pork from Denmark,
black Iranian caviar, Japanese Kobe beef and
fresh melons from China, all while his people
subsist on a meagre diet of rice and kimchi.
Another habit he picked up from boarding school
in Switzerland was an obsession with cheese.
According to some inside sources, Kim’s
diet consists almost completely of cheese,
and that he has been known to make himself
so sick that he’s had to take breaks from
public life after gorging himself on shipments
of Emmentaler cheese from Switzerland.
Some believe he’s intentionally trying to
fatten up to look more like his grandfather,
Kim Il-sung, the much revered and rotund first
Supreme Leader of North Korea.
In a country where most people are starving,
a full figure is seen as a symbol of wealth,
and his weight gain might be meant to signal
to his people that Kim is so rich that he
can afford to eat himself to death.
Kim Jong Un may have inherited his love of
food from his father, as well.
In 1997, Kim Jong Il hired the first Italian
chef in North Korea, strictly to make pizza
for the ruling family and their elite circles.
Both Kim and his father were said to “go
crazy” for pizza covered in meat - ham,
pepperoni, prosciutto - they ate it all up.
No fine dining experience would be complete
without a drink to wash down all that rich
food, and of course Kim Jong Un has the finest
tastes in drinks, too.
He reportedly spends nearly thirty million
dollars a year importing Hennessy whiskey
and the world’s finest champagnes to pair
with his pizza and cheese.
He also spends nearly a million dollars a
year importing the finest Brazilian coffee.
And of course, Kim Jong Un can’t truly enjoy
the world’s fine coffee and most expensive
liquors without a luxury cigarette!
Kim, an avid smoker, is said to prefer imported
French cigarettes that cost nearly fifty dollars
a pack, and carries them in a 165 dollar couture
case.
His love of cigarettes is so deep, in fact,
that the investigators who looked into his
finances back in 2013 are convinced that a
huge portion of Kim Jong Un’s wealth comes
from the manufacturing of illegal drugs and
cigarettes.
Kim seems to have no reservations about building
his fortune in the black market - experts
also estimate that North Korea makes at least
fifteen million dollars a year from counterfeit
currencies, and the UN estimates that North
Korean hackers have stolen more than two billion
dollars from the global financial system.
Kim Jong Un has no trouble spending away the
results of his regime’s nefarious activities,
and his diet is just the tip of the iceberg
when it comes to his outrageous spending.
In 2012, human rights organizations put pressure
on world leaders to stop exporting luxury
goods to North Korea while its people continue
to starve.
The official regime had been spending nearly
650 million dollars each year on imported
luxuries like exotic pets, electronics and
perfumes for its elites, while its people
continue to live in utter poverty.
Kim Jong Un is without a doubt the main beneficiary
of the regime’s lavish spending.
Although he rarely leaves his Hermit Kingdom
in North Korea, the Supreme Leader travels
around his domain in style.
He owns more than a hundred luxury cars, including
an armoured Rolls Royce Phantom Seven worth
at least half a million dollars, and a collection
of more than thirty Mercedes Benz that he
inherited from his father.
His father was a Mercedes Benz aficionado,
and his favorite vehicle was the S600 Pullman
Guard limousine, an armoured limo that can
withstand full metal jacket bullets and grenades,
and comes with a cool 1.5 million dollar price
tag.
Kim is also rumoured to have an Audi R8 V10
first generation - one of these highly desirable
supercars was confirmed to be included in
a shipment of forty-two Audis from China to
North Korea, and it could only have been meant
for one man in the entire country.
And that’s just his personal fleet - as
absolute leader of North Korea, Kim Jong Un
also “owns” the nation’s military fleet,
with vehicles like the nine-axle Transporter
Erector Launcher, capable of carrying and
launching North Korea’s most powerful missiles.
For longer trips, like his January 2019 trip
to celebrate his birthday in China, Kim Jong
Un travels in first-class style on board his
personal armored train.
After boarding the train via a red-carpeted
ramp, Kim can relax in plush pink leather
chairs, sip some French wine and nibble on
some Swiss cheese, or, he can dictate orders
to his minions from his on-board conference
table and work on his secret plans on one
of the many on-board Apple computers.
And of course, an on-board chef is on hand
to satisfy the Supreme Leader’s slightest
craving, serving up a menu of cuisines from
around the world on-demand.
As if a bullet-proof train and fleet of luxury
cars wasn’t enough, Kim Jong Un also has
his own private plane, a 1.5 million dollar
decades-old Soviet-made jetliner nicknamed
“Air Force Un”.
To top it all off, he also owns one of the
world’s finest luxury yachts, a seven million
dollar, 200 foot long floating pleasure palace
that Dennis Rodman called a “cross between
a ferry and a Disney boat”.
With all the luxury transportation options
you could dream of at his fingertips, Kim
Jong Un is able to travel in style between
seventeen-plus luxury homes and estates around
the country.
His main home is a nuclear attack-proof estate
called the Central Luxury Mansion, located
in the capital of Pyongyang and complete with
its own underground train station.
When he needs to kick back and relax, Kim
can spend some time at the world-class luxury
ski resort he ordered to be built shortly
after he took power, or, he can spend some
time on his private island, which has its
own shooting range and theatre.
Dennis Rodman spent time on Kim’s island
during his 2013 visit, and called it a “seven-star
party” lifestyle full of the best food,
booze and luxuries the world has to offer.
When it comes to the strangest ways that Kim
Jong Un chooses to blow his fortune, though,
it might just have to be his collection of
thoroughbred racehorses, which he uses extensively
in his propaganda photos.
Kim Jong Un has reportedly spent more than
half a million dollars importing horses since
he rose to power.
While Kim Jong Un has introduced a few reforms
during his reign, and he does project a more
laid-back persona than his father and grandfather
did, he definitely has a dark side.
He appears to have systematically executed
anyone he considers a threat to his power,
including his own brother and uncle, and while
the North Korean people starve, their Dear
Leader goes on spending hundreds of millions
of dollars a year on fine food and other luxuries.
I guess no one ever told him that great power
comes with great responsibility…
Now you’ll definitely want to check out
our other videos on the weird secret-ness
of North Korea, like this one called “Who
Will Take Over After Kim Jong Un in North
Korea?”, or, maybe you’ll like this other
video instead.
You may not have your own plane or private
island, but at least you have the internet!
