With North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong Un's health condition and whereabouts still not known, various speculative stories on the next heir from 'Kim' family are making rounds. Here is a story that made headlines earlier, where an investigation revealed how Kim Jong Un got his hands on two armoured Mercedes Benz cars, that are banned to be exported to North Korea by the US.
The news caught the eyes of media when Kim Jong Un was spotted driving an armoured Mercedes-Benz S-Class long wheelbase limos in July 2019, when the sanctions by the US prohibiting the sale of luxury products to North Korea was effective.
Kim Jong Un was spotted driving an armoured Mercedes-Benz S-Class
This led to probe and according to an investigation by Centre for Defense Studies along with the New York Times revealed interesting details. Two luxury cars costing $500,000 each were said to have been shipped from Rotterdam in the Netherlands. The cargo ship carrying the two cars was said to be in waters for 41 days and then it reached China. From North Korea's ally country, the cars were shifted to Japan and then through another ship were sent to South Korea.
The cars are said to be boarded into a Russian ghost ship. Soon after the containers of two cars were picked up by the ghost ship, its trackers went off. The ship could not be traced for 18 days and then it reappeared with coal stock.
Probe into the details of shipments made things seem more confusing
Reports claim that the cars reached its destination, i.e. North Korea in the days the tracker was switched off. But the probe into the details of shipments made things seem more confusing. The first shipment on the ghost ship was called Xiang Jin. But the name was then changed to DN5505 and the owner's name was Do Young Shipping. This is a shell company based out of the Marshall Islands and owned by a person from Russia. The ship when its tracker was off was sailing with the flag of West African nation Togo. The safety officer/managers were reportedly from Hong Kong.
A further probe by the New York Times revealed that the Russian Ghost Ship could be tracked till a coal port near Vladivostok. Reports also claimed that Danil Kazachuk who owned the ship agreed to the fact that he had sold Mercedes Benz, but refused to divulge any details about the buyer. The NYT probe also revealed that two transport planes from North Korea reached the Vladivostok port at the same time when the ghost ship arrived.
