North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has been spotted using a top-of-the-line, newly released Mercedes-Benz vehicle just a few months after its launch. In response, Mercedes-Benz acknowledged the seriousness of the situation but stated that it cannot control third parties’ re-sale or re-export of the vehicle.
According to a Voice of America (VOA) report, the Communications Team at Mercedes-Benz’s headquarters in Germany stated, “We take all indications of potential violations of sanctions and export control regulations very seriously and follow up on them.”
“Mercedes-Benz does not do any business with North Korea and is not present in the North Korean market at all, be it through a representative office or any other facility,” the company added.
Mercedes-Benz also clarified that the vehicle associated with Kim is “a regular series production vehicle and not a limited edition,” stating that “Re-Sales or Re-Export of vehicles by third parties, especially of used vehicles, are beyond our control.”
The fact that the vehicle in question is not a special or rare model implies it may have reached North Korea through indirect channels that bypass the company’s direct control.
In light of ongoing reports of its flagship vehicle appearing in North Korea, a spokesperson from the German Foreign Ministry remarked, “Germany is actively working to prevent third-party evasion of sanctions.”
On August 10, a state-run newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, published photos of a black sports utility vehicle (SUV) bearing the Mercedes logo on Kim Jong Un’s private train as he visited flood-affected areas in Uiju County, North Pyongan Province.
This vehicle is identified as the Mercedes-Maybach GLS 600 4MATIC facelift model, which has a starting price of approximately $178,000 in the U.S. market.
Notably, this model was released and began sales earlier this year, raising concerns that North Korea continues to import luxury cars illegally despite international sanctions.
Lee Hyun Seung, a researcher at the Global Peace Foundation and a defector who previously served as deputy director of a ship trading company under the North Korean Workers’ Party’s Office 39, told VOA that North Korea often imports luxury goods like high-end cars through third-party channels that are hard to trace back to the country. He suggested that to make sanctions more effective, efforts should focus on targeting North Korea’s overseas trade hubs and human networks rather than solely tracking the movement of luxury goods.