Newsdeck

Newsdeck

Bangladesh seizes North Korean diplomat’s Rolls-Royce

Bangladesh authorities have seized a luxury Rolls-Royce Ghost car illegally brought into the country for a former North Korean diplomat expelled for smuggling.

Customs intelligence chief Moinul Khan said Han Son Ik intended to bring in the car without paying duty due to his diplomatic status and sell it on to a local buyer.

Officials said the luxury car would have been liable for import duties of more than 800 percent had it been brought in legally.

Han was first secretary of the North Korean embassy in Dhaka until he was expelled in August after being accused of smuggling more than a million cigarettes as well as electronics worth half a million dollars.

“We had intelligence that Han made a deal with a local buyer to bring the person a Rolls-Royce with Han’s diplomatic immunity, therefore he attempted to evade customs tax,” Khan told AFP.

“Han has been marked as a frequent offender.”

AFP was unable to contact the North Korean embassy for comment.

In March 2015 a North Korean diplomat was forced to apologise after he was caught at Dhaka airport trying to smuggle nearly 27 kilograms (60 pounds) of gold worth $1.7 million into the country.

A North Korean restaurant in Dhaka was shut down the same year after officials found it was selling wine and drugs such as Viagra without permission.

In 2012 customs authorities imposed a 2.5-million taka fine after seizing illegal wines from another North Korean envoy.

sj/sa/cc/sm

© 1994-2017 Agence France-Presse

Gallery

Please peer review 3 community comments before your comment can be posted

We would like our readers to start paying for Daily Maverick...

…but we are not going to force you to. Over 10 million users come to us each month for the news. We have not put it behind a paywall because the truth should not be a luxury.

Instead we ask our readers who can afford to contribute, even a small amount each month, to do so.

If you appreciate it and want to see us keep going then please consider contributing whatever you can.

Support Daily Maverick→
Payment options

Become a Maverick Insider

This could have been a paywall

On another site this would have been a paywall. Maverick Insider keeps our content free for all.

Become an Insider

Every seed of hope will one day sprout.

South African citizens throughout the country are standing up for our human rights. Stay informed, connected and inspired by our weekly FREE Maverick Citizen newsletter.