A vast luxury yacht reportedly worth up to £75m has been spotted near Kim Jong Un’s seaside villa in Wonsan, North Korea, as unconfirmed online rumours swirl that the leader has died after suffering a brain haemorrhage.
The 80m (263ft) craft has been observed off the Wonsan coastline between July and mid-October, appearing on numerous occasions in satellite imagery close to a coastal resort frequently visited by Kim Jong Un over recent months.
The vessel appears to feature an enormous 50m swimming pool running along its deck, complete with waterslides at one end. It had remained docked at a maintenance facility for several months before relocating in early July to waters off a stretch of coastline known as the Kalma Peninsula, according to a BBC report.
The area lies close to Wonsan, a seaside resort containing a villa used by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his family.
The reports surfaced just days before speculation spread online that Kim had suffered a brain haemorrhage and died. Chairman of the China Democracy Party, Wanjun Xie, claimed that Kim passed away following a severe cerebral haemorrhage and that his sister, Kim Yo-jong, has assumed control of the regime. This has not been confirmed.
Several additional vessels were also identified near Kim’s villa. They are widely believed to be reserved for North Korea’s supreme leader and his family.
Former North Korean officials, defectors and analysts maintain that it would be virtually impossible for anyone outside the regime’s inner circle to own or freely operate vessels of this size.
”In winter, they would keep them at the shipyard. When summer came, they would bring them out and move them to Kim Jong Un’s villa or towards Kalma, and use them for swimming and recreation,” said Ri Jong Ho, a former official at the Workers’ Party’s Office 39.
The Workers’ Party’s Office 39 is thought to be responsible for generating and administering foreign currency for the leadership.
The fortune of those positioned at the apex of the secretive North Korean dictatorship proves as difficult to ascertain as the nation’s economic data.
A 2025 UN report states that most North Koreans endure “systematic, widespread and gross human rights violations” featuring complete state control, extensive forced labour and persistent food scarcity that leaves approximately 40% of the population malnourished. The Kim regime, by contrast, is recognised for living in opulence.
Similar luxury yachts to the vessel observed in the satellite imagery are valued from tens of millions to exceeding $100m (£75m). Kim’s considerably smaller, 29-metre Princess yacht was previously valued at roughly $7m, the BBC reports. While vessel locations alone cannot definitively confirm the family’s whereabouts, their movements indicate activities that would otherwise stay hidden from public scrutiny.
Kim Jong Un spent part of his childhood in Wonsan with his mother, according to biographers and intelligence reports.
The BBC has additionally identified four substantial vessels in the Wonsan area, measuring roughly 50m, 55m, 60m and 80m, all of which have been repeatedly observed near the supreme leader’s Wonsan residence throughout this year.
”Kim Jong Un is supposed to be a ‘leader of the people’,” Ri Jong Ho says, “yet he has four luxury vessels like these while ordinary people are struggling just to get one meal a day.”