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Page In North Korea, Leaders’ Limos Steer Past Ills
North Korean children might be munching roots. and tubers, but their "Dear Leader" makes sure he rides around in style.
Daimler-Benz executive Elke Lippold was stunned while visiting Pyongyang last month to see S-Class Mercedes-Benz limousines gliding down the bleak streets of the impoverished country’s capital. Some of the cars, which cost about $100,000 each, were the company’s latest models. When he remarked on the plush vehicles to his hosts, they reportedly asked him if he could sell them 200 more. "They wanted the new S Class, they didn’t want the old model," Mr. Lippold later told Detroit’s Automotive News.
Such a fleet would cost roughly $20 million, about a fifth of the $103 million that United Nations agencies have pledged in food aid to the country this year. Four years of floods and govern-meat mismanagement have ruined North Korea’s frail economy and led to widespread starvation
— and annual appeals from its leaders for help from abroad. The car-buying "makes it harder for those who are going to put hands in their pockets" to dish out cash, said Namanga Ngongi, the U.N. World Food Program deputy head, when asked about the limos.It isn’t the first time North Korea’s leadership has been criticized for callous indulgence at the expense of Its people. Kim Jong II is famous for buying loyalty from his cadres with cases of fine cognac, fast cars and beautiful women. The country already has an estimated 7,000 to 8,000 Mercedes-Benz cars, which Daimler-Benz helps keep running with periodic shipments of spare parts. On a recent visit, Beijing-based journalist Anne Gruttner saw at least 100 Mercedes-Benz limos--parked behind the viewing stands on which Mr. Kim and his generals were watching the country’s anniversary celebrations.
Mr. Uppold, Daimler-Benz’s new chief executive officer for Northeast Asia, was visiting Pyongyang with International Olympic Committee President Juan Antonio Samaranch. The company has donated a bus to the North Korean Olympic, team. Mr. Lippold was unavailable to comment for this article, but he told Automotive News’s Asia editor, Jim Treece, that he was flabbergasted by the North Korean request for new cars and replied that such a tall order would be difficult to fill.
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Added October 17, 1998