Satellite Images Reveal Kim Jong Un's 80m Yacht With 50m Pool — SkimNews
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- BBC satellite analysis tracked four large vessels — measuring approximately 50m, 55m, 60m, and 80m — repeatedly appearing around Kim Jong Un's Wonsan villa from July to mid-October, with four smaller boats ferrying people and supplies to the 50m vessel.
- The 80-metre yacht features a 50m swimming pool and a cluster of water slides; it sat idle at a maintenance facility for months before relocating in early July to waters off the Kalma Peninsula, close to Kim's seaside villa.
- Former Workers' Party Office 39 official Ri Jong Ho told the BBC the regime stores large vessels at the shipyard in winter and brings them out in summer, mooring them near Kim's villa or the Kalma Peninsula for swimming and recreation.
- Comparable luxury yachts run from tens of millions to over $100m (£75m), while Kim's smaller 29-metre Princess yacht was previously estimated at about $7m.
- North Korean state media rarely acknowledges Kim on holiday, framing such visits as "official inspections" or "guidance," though defectors interviewed by the BBC said the family's holidays in Wonsan were an open secret.
- Dennis Rodman said he spent most of his 2013 visit with Kim around Wonsan jet-skiing and horse riding, describing a 60m vessel they used as "a cross between a ferry and a Disney boat."
- North Korea's per capita GDP stood at approximately $667 in 2024 (per the UN), against South Korea's $36,227, with a 2025 UN report estimating 40% of the population is undernourished.
Why it matters: The documented fleet of at least four large luxury vessels, anchored near Kim Jong Un's villa and guarded by support boats, materialises the wealth inequality North Korean state propaganda works to obscure: a sanctioned leadership with a 50m swimming pool on an 80m yacht while roughly 40% of citizens face chronic food shortages on a $667 per capita GDP. The contrast between the regime's "leader of the people" image and the satellite evidence is the story's sharp edge.
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