Vladimir Putin recently visited North Korea and gave local dictator Kim Jong Un a luxury black Aurus limousine.
The two leaders even took a ride in the car, trying to show how strong their anti-Western alliance is. However, it turned out that the Russian-made car had components from South Korea, the number one enemy of the regime in Pyongyang.
Agency “Reuters”, citing customs reports, reported that the company producing the Aurus imported parts worth millions of dollars from South Korea. Imports show that Russia continues to rely on Western technology.
Russia has imported at least $34 million worth of equipment and components between 2018 and 2023 to assemble Aurus cars and motorcycles. Imports include body parts, sensors, switches and other components. In addition, parts were imported from China, India, Turkey, Italy and other EU countries.
Deliveries from South Korea have not stopped even after the start of the war that Putin started against Ukraine. “Reuters“ notes that South Korean companies were among the largest suppliers of the Aurus.
The Aurus limousine has been developed since 2013 by the Russian state research institute NAMI as part of the “Cortege“ project.
And here comes the logical question: how will a country like Russia, which cannot build even a single car on its own, destroy countries like the USA and South Korea, as threats are constantly heard from Moscow?