North Korea leader Kim set to bear cost of nuclear weapons decision

NORTH Korea’s decision to test a nuclear weapon may mean Korean Leader, Kim Jong-il will have to reign in his extravagant spending habits.

The United Nations is moving closer to imposing sanctions on North Korea for its announced nuclear test Monday. These include steps to hit the state’s nuclear and missile programs as well as keeping luxury goods away from its leaders.

“In a country as impoverished as North Korea, luxury goods are a key currency that keep the elite happy,” an unnamed South Korean government official said.

He added: ‘‘No one enjoys luxury goods more than Kim, who boasts the country’s finest wine cellar with space for 10,000 bottles.’’

Kenji Fujimoto, a pseudonym, who worked as Kim’s personal sushi chef in the late 1980s and 1990s at a time when more than 1 million North Koreans perished in a famine, said in a book Kim would go to extremes to satisfy his appetite.

He said: ‘‘Kim would have aides buy caviar for him in Iran and even sent one envoy to Beijing to bring back McDonald’s hamburgers.’’ Although Intelligence officials in the South said the North’s leader has mellowed over the years, Michael Breen, a Seoul-based consultant and author of “Kim Jong-il: North Korea’s Dear Leader,” said it might be difficult to curtail the North’s purchase of luxury goods.

Breen said: ‘‘Kim used to have envoys buy elaborate toys overseas for his three known sons when they were children. Now they prefer jet skis.’’