A United Nations report says the organization’s sanctions against North Korea, imposed because of Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program, have done nothing to curb the regime’s love of luxury. The analysis found that in 2012, leader Kim Jong-un’s first year in power, North Korea imported $645.8 million worth of luxury goods, more than double similar imports in the previous year. Kim is reported to have imported many Mercedes-Benz cars, musical instruments and French brandy. The UN says Kim paid with profits from the illegal sale of alcohol in Muslim countries, and from trafficking in ivory from Africa to China.
