‘Ford van’ spotted following Kim Jong-un Ford says it has never sold to North Korea

Chairman Kim Jong-un's security vehicle, which appears to be a product of the American automobile company Ford, was recently spotted on Korean Central Television . Another violation of sanctions against North Korea has been revealed .

 

Chairman Kim Jong-un's vehicle moving to the event site to attend the groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of a local industrial factory in Seongcheon-gun on the 28th .

Behind Kim Jong-un's personal vehicle, the German Mercedes-Benz Maybach, two large vans follow from both sides as if guarding him .

The vehicle following is believed to be the  ' Transit ' from  the American company ' Ford ', which is attracting attention .

How did North Korea obtain American-made Ford vehicles ?

 In response to a question from RFA asking whether they were aware of the fact that Ford vehicles were obtained from North Korea, a Ford representative  said,  “ Ford fully complies with U.S. sanctions against North Korea and has never provided products or services to North Korea . ” “ We have no idea how the vehicles were brought into North Korea, ” he said .  ( Ford fully complies with US sanctions against North Korea and doesn't provide products or services in, to or through agents of the country. How these vehicles were procured for use in and brought to North Korea is unknown.)

Previously , in  2013 ,  the UN resolution on sanctions against North Korea was passed , defining luxury cars as luxury goods and banning their import into North Korea  . In 2017 ,  the level of sanctions against North Korea was further increased , including banning the import of all means of transportation .         

However, in January of last year , a vehicle presumed to be Chairman Kim's Mercedes -Benz Maybach  GLS 600 was exposed through  North Korea's Korean Central  Television , highlighting the fact that luxury goods are constantly being smuggled into North Korea .  

Also, at the end of last year ,  not only Chairman Kim but also North Korea's top executives arriving at the Party Central Committee headquarters building to attend a plenary meeting were caught getting out of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, the luxury Mercedes-Benz car,  drawing criticism from the  international community .

Senior researcher Bruce Bennett, a military expert at the US Rand Institute, told RFA on this day , “ Kim Jong-un wants to prove that he is strong enough to bypass sanctions against North Korea . ”              

Senior Researcher Bennett :  I think North Korea wants to show that it has access to things from around the world . This applies to American-made products such as Ford and  German-made products such as Mercedes-Benz  . He's basically demonstrating his power and access to bypass all of these sanctions . In fact , they can selectively avoid sanctions if they invest enough money .   

Meanwhile, in  2019 , the Center for Advanced Defense Studies (C4ADS), a U.S. private research institute , disclosed that Kim Jong-un's  two Mercedes-Benz Maybach entered Pyongyang via Italy ,  the Netherlands ,  China ,  Japan ,  South Korea ,  and Russia in  2018 to avoid sanctions . I also did it .