There’s no denying that Kim Jong-Un, the supreme leader of North Korea, rules the mysterious hermit kingdom with an iron fist. But his prickly foreign policies and human rights infractions keep the kingdom’s economy incredibly weak. So much so, that the average yearly income for a North Korean is a pitiful $1,300! But Kim lives lavishly by hoarding the country’s meagre assets for himself! From buying watches worth millions to fleets of classic cars, and even a supersized party barge, his spending is out of control! So, hold your chin up, because I promise, your jaw is going to hit the floor when you learn about what that leader wastes his country’s money on!
Piano Collection
As stiff and stern as he looks, Kim Jong-Un actually has a soft side that’s particularly fond of music. According to inside reports, the supreme leader loves everything musical, from singing karaoke, to listening to 80’s jams and attending K-Pop performances. So much so, that he even has his own, private, 13-piece live band made up exclusively of female violinists!
As hard as that obsession is to believe, there’s some convincing customs data to support it! In 2014, it was revealed he’d imported a staggering 36 top end pianos into the country, along with a lot of high-priced recording equipment. But, confusingly, there are no reports to suggest that Kim actually plays the piano, so what did he need that many for?Maybe he was trying to set up another private band made purely of pianists? Or maybe he was arming his soldiers for piano-based warfare? Whatever the reason, it’s unlikely those would be anything less than top quality. And considering a top-end, concert grand piano can sell for more than $170,000, that 36 strong collection could be worth a staggering $6 million!
Palaces Galore
A lot of world leaders have multiple residences, like America’s President, Donald Trump, for example. When he was in charge, he had not one, not two, but three part time residences as well as the White House! As extra as that sounds, it’s nothing compared to the number Kim Jong-Un owns.
According to reports from North Korea Uncovered, there are a phenomenal 14 palaces used exclusively by the supreme leader and his family. And just like Kim, they’re not small in size like the one, known as ‘The Ryongsong Residence’, which is Kim’s colossal main residence. The entire complex is spread over more than 4 ½ square miles of Pyongyang’s suburbs, encompassing a private train station, a horse racing track, and even 3 massive manmade lakes!
kim jong un house in North Korea Ryongsong Residence by Adventure Story
But less than 20 miles away, he also has another massive mansion known as ‘The Kangdong Residence’. Used as a summer retreat, that palace also has 3 huge manmade lakes and a private train station, along with an elaborate garden and many guesthouses.And over on the country’s east coast, another even more lavish compound sits on the seaside. That is ‘The Wonsan Residence’, and it’s a little more ostentatious than the other two! Connected to a huge sports stadium and waterpark, the grounds of that grand complex contain 10 separate villas, a private harbor, a basketball court, and even a theatre! And to think, he owns at least 11 more residences like that!
While there’s no word on how much building and maintaining those compounds costs, the Wonsan compound alone appears to be about 10 acres in size. For perspective, an estate of that size in California would be worth around $18 million!
Secret Cinema
One thing you can find in almost any millionaires home is a private movie theatre. But even by those standards, Kim Jong-Un’s private theatre really takes the cake or, in this case, popcorn! According to unconfirmed reports, his father and previous supreme leader, Kim Jong-il, was utterly obsessed with movies and cinema. So much so, that he built a staggering 1,000 seat private theatre for him and his close comrades to enjoy.
For contrast, a standard movie theatre holds around 200 seats, so that has to be one seriously big silver screen! On top of that, the former leader claimed he owned more than 30,000 VHS and DVDs of Hollywood blockbusters like Titanic, Gladiator, and Godzilla! With the latest DVD releases costing up to $20, that would mean he owned something like $600,000 worth of movies alone!But since his death in 2011, Kim Jong-Un has probably added to his father’s expensive collection considering Netflix isn’t available in North Korea! But whatever he’s watching, you can't expect that classic titles like ‘The Interview’ or ‘Team America’ will be in his library!
Hiring the Harlem Globetrotters
While his father might have had a love of cinema, Kim’s passion lies out on the basketball court. He loves watching the game so much that in 2019, he demanded that the US send famous basketball players to North Korea as part of a proposed denuclearization deal. He claimed it was to normalize relations between the two countries. But it was probably because of Kim’s passion with the sport, seeing how most of his mansions have a court or two in them!
Though Kim’s obsession reached an expensive peak back in 2013, when he invited world-famous ballers, the Harlem Globetrotters, to play an exhibition game against North Korea’s National team. In one of the most bizarre basketball games ever to grace a court, the teams somehow ended the match in a 110-110 tie.
While that super strange basketball diplomacy filled up Kim’s stadium, it helped empty his bank account! The standard fee for an appearance from the Globetrotters in the US is a staggering $75,000. But that price doesn’t include flights, accommodation, or throwing a game to make a nation look good! So how much extra do you think Kim paid to persuade the Globetrotters to settle on a draw?
Luxury Trains
When it comes to travelling across the closed off kingdom, the Kim dynasty has always relied on rails. The thing is, Kim Jong-Un’s father, Kim Jong-Il, had a mortal fear of flying. So instead of taking to the skies, he demanded 90 luxury train cars to suit all his long-haul needs.
Those included a dedicated dining car, colossal conference car, several saloons, and even kitchens equipped to serve anything from Japanese to French cuisine! His son, of course, inherited it, and has since renovated it at the cost of his country. One car, for example, is now lined with rows of plush pink leather seats.
And his father’s old conference carriage has been decked out with modern white paneling! Each car is completely bullet proof, making them thousands of pounds heavier than the average carriage. And that additional weight means that with 21 cars, it can reach a maximum speed of just 37 mph.Despite its snail’s pace, Kim uses it to visit factories all around the country, where he ironically takes propaganda photos to show the supposed wealth of the nation. But he doesn’t just visit factories, because there are also around 20 private train stations dotted across the country that only the supreme leader’s train is permitted to use!
The Taeyangho Train: Kim Jong-Un’s Fortress on Rails by Megaprojects But how much does that rolling behemoth really cost? Well, a single standard train carriage can cost upwards of $1.5 million to build. And seeing how Kim has 90 armor clad, customized carriages at his disposal, that could make his train worth more than $135 million! If he’s looking to drive North Korea’s economy down even further, then he’s definitely on the right track.
Private Jets
Unlike his flight-phobic father, Kim Jong-Un has no problem taking to the skies, as proven by not just one, but two of his private planes! On the rare occasion that he’s left the confines of North Korea, that leader has arrived in one of two Ilyushin Il-62 M aircraft, decked out in VIP government livery. When those were designed back in 1963, they were the largest jet liners of their kind at nearly 175 ft long!
Although the soviet-era planes actually went out of production in 1995, that hasn’t stopped Kim from refurbishing both aircraft for his personal use. But refits aside, those prehistoric planes are still very expensive to precure. Along with the cost of a suitably sized hanger and maintenance, they can each cost a whopping $50 million!
Admittedly, that’s nothing compared to America’s new Air Force One model planes. Along with their hangers and maintenance, those two presidential sky palaces will cost a staggering $5.3 billion! But, considering 19 Presidents of the United States from Roosevelt to Trump made a staggering 765 international trips while in office, those presidential planes certainly get a lot of use! But since Kim Jong-Un came to power in 2011, he’s made just 9 trips to foreign countries. So, $50 million per plane is some serious overkill! You can only wonder if he calls them Air Force Un.
Limos
Whenever Kim really wants to arrive in style, he pulls up in one of his magnificent Mercedes Benz Pullman Limos. Top-of-the-line Mercedes limos like those are popular with many world leaders, not just because they look professional, but because they’re also bulletproof! And at nearly $1.6 million each, you’d hope even the hubcaps could stop a bullet or two.
But Kim’s possession of the luxury limos is actually a massive violation of international sanctions against North Korea. Those sanctions were put in place by the United Nations on imported luxury goods more than a decade ago, all in an attempt to suppress Kim’s quest for nuclear weapons! But Kim clearly found a way to skirt those sanctions in order to fuel his car collecting habits, because it’s not just limos he’s illegally imported.
Reports have surfaced that he also owns a fleet of more than 100 luxury cars! According to customs data and photographs, those include a $162,000 Audi R8, a $100,000 Range Rover, and an astonishing Armored Rolls Royce Phantom that cost more than $500,000! Like that wasn’t defiant enough, he brazenly drove that half a million-dollar Phantom to his meeting with Mike Pompeo, the former director of the CIA.
Super Yacht
When Kim’s not lavishly travelling by plane, train, or automobile, he takes to the sea in style! Back In 2013, Kim and his top generals were spotted disembarking from a huge, 95 ft yacht during a visit to a fishery station. But that wasn’t just any yacht, it was a luxury 95MY Princess Yacht!
PRINCESS 95 MOTOR YACHT - PRINCESS 95MY - Luxury Flybridge Motor Yacht by Princess Yachts That was a top-of-the-line British motor vessel comprised of 3 huge decks, kitted out with a sizeable saloon, dining area, a full kitchen, and even 4 bedrooms! But all that seafaring space came at an eyewatering cost of $7 million!Although that’s not the only boat he owns. Satellite images of the hermit kingdom reveal that, just outside his previously mentioned Wonsan compound, there’s at least one more absolutely massive yacht in the docks! At about 100 ft long, it’s roughly the same size as the Princess Yacht, meaning it’s also probably worth upwards of $7 million!
But it’s not just yachts in Kim’s dock, just look at the massive monstrosity in the image below!
Believe it or not, that is Kim Jong-Un’s private, 200ft long, multi-storey, pool party barge! According to witnesses, it contains an Olympic length swimming pool which, at its top end, has spiraling waterslides, as well as a massive backstage lounge. Satellite data shows that floating amusement park has been renovated over the years, and was even spotted floating off the coast of Tae island for a whole month in 2018!Considering Kim disappears from the media spotlight for months at a time, it makes you wonder if he’s hard at work, or hardly working! But how much does it cost? Well, for contrast, a huge, 120 ft Tiki Barge can be put up for sale for a wallet-busting $1 million back in 2015. So, considering Kim’s barge is nearly twice the size of that, it must be a multi-million-dollar floater!
Luxury Food
It’s pretty clear that Kim Jong-Un is a big fan of his food. But in 2019, following the Hanoi summit that Kim attended, a chef revealed something shocking about that leader’s diet. Not only had Kim flown his own chefs and servers in, but they’d prepared him a gut busting amount of the finest caviar, lobster, Wagyu beef, and foie gras money could buy.
Clearly, he’s developed a taste for the finer things in life! But fancy foie gras can cost up to $90 per pound, whereas high-grade Wagyu beef can reach up to $200 per lb. As for caviar and lobster, both of those delicious luxury items are actually banned from North Korea because of international sanctions. But that clearly hasn’t stop Kim Jong-Un from eating whatever he wants, whenever he wants!And when he’s not busy chowing down on international delicacies, he’s importing them in! In 2016, he reportedly ordered almost $67,000 worth of expensive cheeses from Italy alone! But most of his poverty-stricken country relies on food rations, which were reported to be just 300 grams of food a day back in 2019. That’s less than what an average preschoolers eats!So it seems unlikely that Kim has been sharing any of his dairy! In fact, his unending love of imported cheese fueled a rumor in 2014 that he’d gotten so fat, both his ankles suddenly fractured under his own weight! After that, maybe they should consider changing that supreme leader’s name to Kim Jong-Omnomnom.
Splashing On Beverages
To wash all that fine food down, Kim makes sure to order in plenty of beverages that are fit for a king. In 2016 alone, he reportedly imported almost $1 million worth of fine Brazilian coffee! But while Kim was slurping down hot cups of quality jo, around 50% of North Korea’s rural population didn’t even have access to drinking water. And to make matters worse, it isn’t just coffee that insatiable leader wastes his country’s money on.
Kim loves an expensive alcoholic beverage or two. In fact, he claimed he once drank 10 bottles of France’s famous Bordeaux in a single evening! Considering quality Bordeaux can cost more than $1000 per bottle, I hope that $10,000 nightcap really knocked him out! But in 2016, Kim blew more than $45,000 on illicitly imported US liquor for him and his closest comrades!While he’s not always had a great relationship with the US, that doesn’t seem to have stopped his love of stateside spirits! Though it’s not just the US he’s been buying from. In 2016 alone, he imported more than $1 million of alcohol from around the world! That’s a lot considering 2.8 million North Koreans at the time were struggling to afford food!
Although, as you probably guessed, premium alcohol is considered a luxury item and is illegal to import to North Korea under UN regulations. But despite the strictness of those sanctions, North Korea found a way round them. In 2017, it’s reported that Kim spent more than a staggering $35 million illegally importing lavish international liquor for his elite comrades to enjoy! That’s enough to leave anyone seeing double!
High-Priced Horses
It’s not just Russian President Vladimir Putin who likes to pose for photos on the back of a horse. King Jong-Un also has a penchant for posing with ponies! Although, thankfully, he likes to do it with his shirt on! But for that particular photoshoot, Kim didn’t want to skimp on any expenses. He spent a staggering $75,000 on 12 purebred horses from Russia, all to appear like the very vision of fitness to the citizens of North Korea. And that was just one photoshoot!
Between 2010 and 2019, customs data shows Kim imported at least 138 horses from Russia for a monumental $584,000, emphasis on the mental! But while Kim’s busy horsing around, he’s probably oblivious to the fact that his $75,000 photoshoot alone cost the same as an entire years salary for 60 North Koreans.
Luxury Watches
When Kim steps out onto the world stage, he’s usually drably dressed in a dark, button up suit, with his face perfectly accentuated by that super square haircut. But as plain as he looks, there’s something a little more lavish strapped to his wrist. On more than one occasion, that supreme leader has been clocked wearing some seriously fine Swiss time pieces. Like here in the image below, when he was watching a missile test wearing an IWC Portofino Automatic wristwatch, which costs almost $14,000!
And here in the image below, at yet another missile test launch, he was wearing a very fancy Movado Museum timepiece.Just two years after taking control of the country, Kim’s spending on Swiss watches increased almost fourfold, from about $64,000 in 2010, to over $230,000 in 2012! However, in 2016, after falling afoul of even more UN sanctions, the Swiss government put a stop to all luxury watch exports to North Korea.But apparently, the ban didn’t stop Kim from illegally importing around 100 brand new Rolexes as gifts for his elite party members in December 2016! With many high-end Rolexes costing around $10,000, Kim might have spent upwards of $1 million on those gifts alone! As disputable as it sounds, no-one is denying that that supreme leader spends big on his own watch collection, which some believe to be worth an enormous $8.2 million!
Expensive Wife
While Kim isn’t afraid to live large in more ways than one his wife, Ri Sol Ju, definitely isn’t slumming it either. Kim keeps her decked out in all the finest fashions! And in recent years, she’s appeared at press event and international meetings dressed in more and more western styles with a few designer items to match. Like here in the image below, where she sported a Dior clutch bag, which cost an incredible $1600!
She’s also been spotted with several others thought to be worth more than $1500 apiece. That doesn’t exactly sound like much in contrast to what Kim spends on horses, watches, and even cheese. But just one of her handbags costs about the same as a North Korean citizen’s yearly salary, and her lavish lifestyle has actually made her unpopular with the people!
Pleasure Squad
Despite having a pretty and pricey wife, Kim Jong-Un is not a monogamous man. Since the days of his equally corrupt grandfather, Kim Il-Sung, that ruling family has had a group of ladies, known unnervingly as a Pleasure Squad on standby. Those pretty women are handpicked from the population to entertain the supreme leader and his comrades by singing, dancing, and other more exotic acts.
Having a harem like that sounds made up, but considering Kim Jong-Un himself is the son of one of his father’s many mistresses, it sadly makes sense. But keeping a high-profile harem doesn’t come without its expenses. In 2016 alone, it was reported that the supreme leader spent an eye-watering $3.5 million on lingerie for all the women in his life.Although, I’m not sure how true that claim is. Even in the west, the most expensive lingerie only reaches about $1000 per set. So, unless he bought a ridiculous 3,500 spicy sets, that claim doesn’t quite add up. Although it would, if his harem consisted of more than 2,000 women, which some media outlets actually claim is the case! However, some reports state that that racy $3.5 million spend also included costumes. Let’s pretend for the sake of all our innocent minds that that is just some kind of super impressive cosplay!
Longevity Center
Now that we know Kim isn’t in short supply of women, the pressure to produce an heir who’ll inherit his incredibly corrupt kingdom sits squarely on his massive shoulders. While there are unconfirmed rumors that he has 3 children with Ri Sol Ju one of whom might be a boy, that’s not enough for that supreme leader.
After all, Kim Jong-Un was not the oldest of his male siblings when he was named heir of the hermit kingdom! The title passed over the heads of his two other brothers, Kim Jong-Chol and King Jong-Nam, who were deemed unfit to rule by their father! So, Kim Jong-Il has to ensure he has enough heirs to choose from when his time comes to pass on the leadership and assets of the kingdom.
But how does he do that? According to one North Korean defector, the Kim family owns a private life longevity Center made up of a whopping 130 of the nation’s top scientists! Their only job is to ensure the health and happiness of the Kim family, to keep them alive for as long as possible.Day and night, those scientists work on everything from improving the tenderness of Kim’s beef, to replicating the leader’s favorite western brand of cigarette! Not only that, but the center was also tasked with creating strong aphrodisiacs for the supreme leaders, made from illegally poached substances like seal and even lion genitals!
While there’s no word on just how much that all costs, a single scientist of that type earns an average yearly salary of about $80,000 in the US. And with 130 at his beck and call, that’s at least $10.4 million in healthcare a year just for one family! Although it still sounds cheaper than an American medical bill.If you were amazed at the expensive items Kim Jong Un owns, you might want to read about more
North Korea facts. Thanks for reading!
