North Korea’s Kim Jong-un outspends his dad on luxuries

The young North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has spent more that $645.8 million on luxury goods in his year in office, according to the UN Commission of Inquiry into Pyongyang's human rights record. He has treated himself to dozens of imported high-end Mercedes-Benz vehicles and musical instruments, including dozens of top-quality pianos. The report did not examine how the items were imported into North Korea, which is under strict UN sanctions. Kim also spent a sizeable sum on a private theatre for 1,000 of his closest allies. The former US basketball player Dennis Rodman returned from a visit to Pyongyang in October describing his life style as a “seven-star” party with free-flowing cocktails, jet-skis at his private island and luxury yachts. A UN agency recently estimated that 2.8 million North Koreans face an ongoing struggle with under-nutrition.