Kim Jong Un's Yachts Caught on Satellite Images. What the Luxury of North Korea's Ruling Clan Looks Like
An 80-meter vessel with a 50-meter pool is hard to miss even from space.
Source: Vantor / BBC
Satellites have spotted four large yachts near the residence of the North Korean leader. The largest one has a swimming pool and water slides.
The BBC analyzed satellite images taken from July to mid-October and tracked the movements of this yacht near the North Korean port of Wonsan.
After several months of maintenance, the yacht left the dock and moved to the Kalma peninsula. A complex of villas used by Kim Jong Un and his family is located nearby.
Three other vessels, approximately 50, 55, and 60 meters long, were repeatedly seen there. Pyongyang officially does not disclose their owners. However, former officials and experts interviewed by the BBC consider it almost impossible for anyone without connections to the country's leadership to freely use such yachts.
The images themselves do not prove that Kim was on board. However, the movements of the vessels coincided with periods when he disappeared from public view. State media rarely report on the leader's vacations — such trips are usually presented as working visits.
The cost of the spotted yachts is unknown. Similar vessels can cost tens of millions of dollars, and some — over 100 million.
How people vacation in the DPRK
Next to the closed world of residences, the "Wonsan-Kalma" resort, opened in July 2025, operates. Its hotels, restaurants, water parks, and sports facilities are designed for 20,000 visitors. DPRK citizens can also vacation there. According to South Korean media, some were offered four nights for approximately $100 — a large sum for most of the population.
At the same time, North Korea also has its own middle class. Over the past decades, trade and private initiative have created a layer of people whose well-being depends on entrepreneurship. Its wealthy part is called donju — "masters of money." They are involved in supplying goods, transportation, lending, providing raw materials to state-owned enterprises, and sharing profits with them. This layer grew out of the markets that helped people survive after the famine of the 1990s.
For such families, signs of prosperity became better apartments, mobile phones, and washing machines. But wealth does not guarantee political protection: entrepreneurs depend on officials, pay bribes, and risk losing property during campaigns against private business. After the start of the pandemic, authorities sharply increased control over markets.
And even for those who have money, it is difficult to go on vacation. According to BBC sources, workers are formally entitled to 14 days of annual leave, but in practice, a long break is rare. Official permission is required to travel outside one's city or region. Therefore, the ability to simply pack up and go to the sea remains a privilege.
According to UN estimates cited by the BBC, about 40% of the DPRK population is still malnourished today.