As its people starve, North Korea is trying to buy a fleet of Mercedes cars worth US$20 million (HK$154.8 million).
A Daimler-Benz executive who visited the country last month was asked by officials to supply 200 of the latest S500-class Mercedes.
Told there would be a delay of several months because of high demand, the officials offered to pay a premium of five per cent for rapid delivery.
'They wanted the new S class, they didn't want the old model,' said the businessman, who was accompanying International Olympic Committee President Juan Antonio Samaranch on a trip to Pyongyang.
Last year, the Government imported 400 status cars including 200 new Mercedes, according to a North Korean expert. He estimated there were between 7,000 and 8,000 Mercedes of various ages in the country, where most people cannot afford a bicycle.
'They are buying Mercedes every year,' he said. Daimler-Benz supplies between 700 and 800 shock absorbers to North Korean every year.