North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s ultra-luxurious yacht was seen operating near his exclusive villa in Wonsan, Gangwon Province.
On Monday, the US-based Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported that the chairman’s private luxury yacht was spotted navigating off the coast of Wonsan in satellite images taken by the US commercial satellite company Planet Labs on the 27th of last month and the 5th of this month.
The yacht was spotted about 900 meters (0.56 miles) from the Galma Peninsula on the 27th of last month and about 500 meters (0.31 miles) from the coast where the Galma Villa is on the 5th.
The 90-meter-long and 15-meter-wide (262-foot-long and 49-foot-wide) yacht has a water slide and a 164-foot-long international standard swimming pool. It is also known to host foreign dignitaries occasionally.
Jung Seong Hak, a researcher at the Korea Institute for Security Strategy, analyzed the satellite images and said, “It is speculated that Kim Jong Un or his family used the private yacht for summering at the Galma Villa.”
Kim attended the plenary meeting from the 28th of last month to the 1st of this month, and on the 2nd, he guided party executives and key factories and enterprises on site. Considering this schedule, it is speculated that Chairman Kim is unlikely to be on the yacht spotted on the 27th of last month.
So far, it has been confirmed that Kim Jong Un owns four luxury yachts in North Korea. The yachts are 50 meters (164 feet), 55 meters (180 feet), 60 meters (197 feet), and 80 meters (262 feet) long, and they were known to have been brought in before the North Korean sanctions were implemented in the 1990s.
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