North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter wore a velvet hoodie by Christian Dior worth nearly over £1k when she witnessed a missile launch with her dictator dad.
Kim Ju-ae, believed to be around 10 years old, was photographed with her father at the site on March 16, according to footage released by North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency.
Beady-eyed followers noticed her plush patterned hoodie as she watched the launch of the Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile at Pyongyang International Airport.
The South Korean news outlet The Choson Ilbo reported that Ju-ae appeared to be wearing the four-digit priced hoodie but it’s unclear whether or not it’s a fake.
If it’s real Dior, though, Ju-ae would be wearing a jacket that costs over the per capita income in North Korea as it stands at £1,300 on the door UK website.
"The hooded down jacket honours House heritage with the iconic Cannage motif," Dior says on the jacket’s product page.
Kim Ju-ae's mother, Ri Sol Ju, is known for her taste in luxury and she has been photographed before carrying purses which look like designer brands such as Dior and Chanel.
Consumption by the ruling family is at odds with North Korea’s socialist ideology and is officially banned under United Nations sanctions, but members of North Korea’s elite continue to defy the sanctions.
“Outsiders tend to think fashion in North Korea is frumpy and outdated, but North Korea’s elite are up to date with new style trends,” Joung Eun-lee, a researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul told the Washington Post.
Since November, Ju-ae has made seven public appearances and North Korea also issued stamps depicting her and her father at the test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile.
Many think this is the leader preparing her to succeed him as head of the world’s only hereditary communist dictatorship.
The high price tag of her clothes is a stark contrast to the conditions in which North Koreans are currently living as they face a famine.
Satellite imagery from South Korean authorities shows that the North produced 180,000 tonnes less food in 2022 than in 2021.
In June, the World Food Programme raised concerns that extreme weather conditions like drought and flooding could reduce the production of both winter and spring crops.
The price of corn has risen 20% at the start of 2023 and the country is ranked one of the poorest countries in the world.
Some experts say the country has hit its worst point since a 1990s famine known as the "Arduous March" which caused mass starvation and killed hundreds of thousands of people.
