There are some new US sanctions on North Korea which are intended to target the fabulous life of Dear Leader and his posse. Sales of Ipods, Segways and other fun things are now banned.
It is Washington’s first-ever attempt to use trade penalties as a way of personally aggravating a foreign leader. They target items believed to be favored by Kim Jong Il or presented by him as gifts to the roughly 600 loyalist families who run the communist government.
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But the list of proposed U.S. penalties, obtained by The Associated Press, aims to make Kim’s swanky life harder: No more cognac, Rolex watches, cigarettes, artwork, expensive cars, Harley Davidson motorcycles or even personal watercraft, such as Jet Skis.
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Experts said the U.S. luxury sanctions would be the first ever to curtail a specific category of goods not associated with military buildups or weapons designs — and the first tailored to annoy a foreign leader. They acknowledge that enforcing the ban on black-market trading would be difficult.
“He’s got folks who can move around nuclear weapons. If he tells these guys to get him a case of Scotch, they’re going to pull it off,” said James A. Lewis, a former State Department official who worked on arms controls. “Unless it’s too large to fit into the cargo hold of a commercial aircraft, it’s going to be tough to restrain him.”
Too bad. It would be amazing photo – Kim Jong Il on a Segway scooter with little white headphones, while drinking cognac. I was about to go have some fun with photoshop, but then as you can see, someone already did.