"Luxury cruise ship spotted off the coast of Wonsan, North Korea... Presumed to be for Kim Jong-un's summer vacation."

The British BBC reported on the 18th (local time) that an 80-meter luxury ship was spotted one after another near the coast of Wonsan, where North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's summer residence is located.

The BBC said this was confirmed as a result of analyzing satellite photos taken of the Wonsan coast from July to mid-October this year. The ship revealed that it has a 50m long swimming pool on the deck and several water slides on one side.

The ship was anchored at a maintenance facility for several months and then moved to waters near the Wonsan Kalma Peninsula in early July. This place is close to a coastal resort with a large villa used by Chairman Kim's family.

In addition to this ship, three ships measuring 50m, 55m, and 60m were seen moving several times around Chairman Kim's villa.

Citing former North Korean officials, defectors, and experts, the BBC reported that these ships appear to be, in fact, the exclusive ships of Chairman Kim's family.

Lee Jong-ho, a North Korean defector who was in charge of earning foreign currency at Office 39 of the Workers' Party, which manages the funds of Chairman Kim's family, told the BBC, "In the winter, they are stored in a shipyard, and in the summer, they are moved to Chairman Kim's villa or the Kalma area and used for swimming and recreation."

The exact price of the ships captured in satellite photos is not known, but the BBC reported that luxury yachts of similar size cost around $100 million (about 134 billion won).

The media pointed out that the luxurious lifestyle of Chairman Kim's family stands in stark contrast to the reality of ordinary North Korean residents who are suffering from extreme economic hardship.

Wonsan has been a favorite vacation spot for the Kim family since Chairman Kim's father, Chairman Kim Jong-il, was in power.

Instead of directly reporting Chairman Kim's vacation, North Korea's state-run media promotes it by packaging it with local guidance or inspection activities.

Dennis Rodman, a former NBA player who visited North Korea in 2013, said in a past interview that he spent a significant portion of his seven-day visit to North Korea with Chairman Kim in Wonsan and that they enjoyed jet skiing and horseback riding together.

Rodman described the 60m long ship they used at the time as a ship that resembled a combination of a passenger ship and an American Disney cruise ship.