About the Author
Joe Smith
Joe Smith is a News Trainee at NK News.
Multiple members of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s delegation to Russia, including the country’s foreign minister and Kim’s sister, carried expensive designer handbags during the trip, NK News analysis shows, despite the regime’s crackdowns on what it calls “bourgeois culture” and “anti-socialist” behavior.
Photos published in state media on Saturday showed North Korean foreign minister Choe Son Hui at Yuri Gagarin Aviation Plant in Komsomolsk-on-Amur carrying what NK News has identified as a rare Gucci handbag. The company no longer manufactures the Zumi model made from ostrich leather, but it is available for sale on one second-hand Icelandic website for US$10,000.