Kim Jong-Un spends £122,000 on imported sexy undies for North Korea elite’s wives, girlfriends and ‘Pleasure Squad’ – as well as £2.7m spirits, £38,000 cheese and £203,000 pinball machines

North Korean despot Kim Jong-Un spent £122,000 on stylish women’s underwear in the space of a year while his population suffers in destitution, data suggests.

Trade figures show that the Hermit Kingdom imported a large number of bras, girdles, corsets, suspenders, braces and garters in 2022, the most recent year with data available.

With 60 percent Of the population estimated to live in absolute poverty, racy lingerie is probably destined for the wardrobes of the country’s narrow elite and the so-called A ‘Pleasure Squad’ of 2,000 women and girls were reportedly hired to provide entertainment for officials and guests.

The elusive upper echelons also enjoyed £2,675,000 worth of spirits and liqueurs, mostly from major trading partner China. And North Koreans could access £12.6 million worth of imported tobacco products in 2022, including cigars, cigarettes and cigarillos.

However, champagne was reserved for a small minority: sparkling wine imports were valued at just £15,000, to accompany a tiny Chinese cheese worth £38,000.

And at the end of a long day, senior officials could relax with a game of pinball, as the country has imported around £203,000 worth of video game consoles and arcade games, just like ordinary citizens. report Food is so scarce that their neighbors starve.

Still, the £122,000 spent on underwear pales in comparison to the £2.7 million lost in 2016.

North Korea reportedly imported a huge amount of pants from China, doubling the 2015 record for the Kippumjo, or ‘Pleasure Squad’.

Defectors have spoken candidly about the horrible reality of the collectives “maintained” by generations of North Korean leaders, who were expected to provide sexualized entertainment to high-ranking party officials and their families, as well as foreign guests.

Some have claimed that girls are even taken from classrooms (some as young as 13) and subjected to medical tests to prove they are virgins before being forced into a life of sexual servitude.

Defectors have spoken of attending drunken sex parties where women had their pubic hair shaved as a loss if they lost the games.

Trade data suggests that North Korea’s elites still enjoy a small number of luxury goods, as the general population subsists on average wages as low as £4.40 per day.

Sweet-toothed North Koreans imported £2.1m worth of chocolate in 2022, a recovery to pre-pandemic highs after falling to just £738,000 in 2020 and £566,000 in 2021. Belgium and Germany once shared small quantities of the products of cocoa, the data shows. , but North Korea is now completely dependent on China.

Beer is also making a comeback, with £113,000 spent eclipsing the paltry £7,000 recorded in 2021, but a far cry from the £10.8 million splurged in 2019.

It was unclear what happened in North Korea to cause the population to spend just £80,000 on imported toilet paper in 2022, after spending £675,000 in 2020 and £1.13 million in 2019. Data for 2021 was not available.

Moving on to cooking, figures suggest North Koreans may have dabbled in foreign cuisine by 2022, importing £521,000 worth of pasta. Italy itself imported £90 million that same year.

Pineapple on pizza was probably out of the question in both countries, as North Korea recorded no imports of pineapples, avocados or mangoes in 2022. Brazil had previously shared small quantities of the fruits.

Interestingly, North Korea also appeared to give up on melons in 2022, recording no imports: below the value of £73,000 in 2020, £2.66 million pounds in 2019 and £2.77 million pounds in 2018.

There was also little room for entertainment in the North Korean economy. Around £2,000 was spent on festival and carnival entertainment, including magic tricks and novelty jokes, up from £61,000 in 2019.

Perhaps related to this, the country stopped importing German sausages in 2022 after finding a small market worth £9,000 in 2018.

Sweets also proved unpopular and accounted for only £86,000 in imports.

However, North Korea imported some games and spent £203,000 on foreign video game consoles/parlor games (such as pinball machines) in 2022.

Children could make use of some of £14,000 worth of imported modeling clays used for children’s entertainment and dentistry.

Musical virtuosos lost out, being able to import only £4,000 worth of string instruments (guitars, violins, etc.), compared to £201,000 in 2018.

Readers didn’t know what to do either. The data showed that North Korea bought Polish newspapers and periodicals worth an estimated £1,000 in 2019, and then never imported anything again.

China supplied the country’s elite with perfumes worth around £46,000 but has stopped exporting luxury foreign wristwatches, data suggests. In 2018, the country sold watches worth just £31,000 to North Korea (less than some high-end Swiss watches) and then stopped recording any trade.

North Korea imported goods from China worth £729,871,000 in 2022, 98.1 percent of the value of all items.

That figure was higher than 2021 (£188,000,000) and 2020 (£382,000,000), but well below the 2018 figures (£1.66 billion).

Total imports of goods from Great Britain in 2022 were estimated at £665,635,859,000.

These figures do not include trade in services.

The majority of products purchased from foreign suppliers came from China, followed by the United States, Germany, Norway, France, Italy and the Netherlands.

Britain exported goods worth £432,570,855,000 in the same year, data shows.

Most of them were sent to the United States, the Netherlands, Germany, Ireland, China, Switzerland and France.

North Korea, by contrast, exported goods worth about £253,995,000 in 2022, mainly to China, Senegal and Aruba in the Caribbean Sea.

Facts about North Korea compiled by Commercial map It is based on bilateral trade flows reported by the country’s trading partners.