North Korea is willing to spend money on its nuclear arsenal but not unpaid parking tickets, an investigative report revealed.
North Korea owes New York City over $156,000 for around 1,300 parking tickets acquired over the course of several decades, according to NBC New York. A North Korean diplomat, however, said there is a misunderstanding.
“It’s not true,” said Jong Jo, secretary of North Korea’s U.N. mission. “It is false. Whenever we have a ticket, we pay.”
New York City disagrees. These debts to the city are not forgiven, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration says.
The Department of State and New York City signed a memorandum of understanding in 2002 allowing the city to revoke diplomatic permits for vehicles with three or more parking tickets. North Korea racked up most of its parking tickets before this decision, but the country is still required to pay its debts.
North Korea has run into this problem in other countries as well. The rogue regime, as of three years ago, had racked up around $270,000 in unpaid parking tickets in London, according to The Guardian.
When it comes to unpaid parking tickets in New York City, North Korea is definitely not the worst offender — Syria owes $362,550, China $398,736 and Russia $104,231.
As of 2014, diplomatic officials from 180 countries had debt related to parking violations in New York City. Egypt was the leader with $1.9 million in unpaid parking tickets. The total debt at that time was $16 million.
The Department of State claims that it “strictly enforces the rules and associated consequences concerning our extension of driving privileges to foreign mission members in the United States,” but it is unclear what steps, if any, have been taken.
The U.S. isn’t exactly in the clear on this situation either. U.S. diplomatic officials in London racked up millions of dollars in parking charges, revealed an International Business Times report from last year.
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