Daimler Has 'Absolutely No Idea' How North Korea Got Its Mercedes-Maybach Limos

Daimler, maker of top-end Mercedes-Maybach automobiles, is on the hot seat after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was spotted scooting around in brand new armored limos at recent international summits.

Sales of luxury automobiles to the despotic regime are banned under a UN Security Council resolution passed in 2013, and Daimler does not count it as one of its customers. Still, the country’s leader travels in uncompromising Germanic style.

Kim is frequently seen riding in a previous-generation S-Class stretch limousine, usually flanked by a dozen panting bodyguards dressed in classic 1960s spy show garb. Those motorcades also contain a Maybach 62 — a vehicle that ceased production at the tail end of 2012.

However, it’s a sparklingly new Mercedes-Maybach S600 Guard that’s raising eyebrows of late. North Korea watcher NK Pro raised the issue in February after the armored sedan was seen driving to the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) Central Committee building. The Mercedes-Maybach model also ushered Kim to a Hanoi summit with U.S. President Donald Trump earlier this year, and was on hand this week during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Vladivostok.

Other top-end Daimler products have been photographed lurking around DPRK leadership.

When contacted by the Associated Press, Daimler claimed it was stumped as to where the vehicles originated.

“We have absolutely no idea how those vehicles were delivered to North Korea,” Daimler spokeswoman Silke Mockert wrote in response to the query. “For Daimler, the correct export of products in conformance with the law is a fundamental principle of responsible entrepreneurial activity.”

Going the S600 Guard route spells opulent accommodations for any passenger worried about nearby grenade blasts or 7.62mm (.30-calibre) rifle or machine gun fire, though former French president Charles de Gaulle aptly demonstrated that a stock Citroen DS is all you need to come away unscathed. We never learn from history.

Continuing in her defense of the automaker, Mockert said, “Our company has had no business connections with North Korea for far more than 15 years now and strictly complies with E.U. and U.S. embargoes. To prevent deliveries to North Korea and to any of its embassies worldwide, Daimler has implemented a comprehensive export control process. Sales of vehicles by third parties, especially of used vehicles, are beyond our control and responsibility.”

Indeed, if you’ve got power and money and aren’t afraid of bending some rules, possessions can just fall into your lap. A professor of Korean studies at Tufts University claims it’s not much of a mystery as to how Kim snagged his German fleet.

“I’d say a new Mercedes is a luxury goods violation by North Korea and, probably, its Chinese middlemen,” Sung-Yoon Lee told NK News.

“It’s business as usual. That is, blatant violation of UNSC sanctions not only by North Korea but also almost certainly by Mercedes, certainly by the country from which the sedan was shipped to China (lack of due diligence), and by China itself.”

[Images: Daimler]