Dutch customs seize 90,000 bottles of vodka

Dutch customs officers seized 3,000 cases of the Russian-made vodka Stolbovaya believed to be heading to North Korea for Kim Jong Un and his top generals on Friday, officials announced on Tuesday.

The shipping container holding 90,000 bottles of Stolbovaya vodka was discovered on Friday, concealed beneath an aircraft fuselage being shipped inside a Chinese freighter, authorities told Dutch newspaper, Algemeen Dagblad.

Customs office spokesman Roul Velleman confirmed the seizure, but did not elaborate on why Dutch officials believe it was intended for the North Korean despot.

Dutch Overseas Trade Minister Sigrid Kaag congratulated the customs officials on the interception, saying: “The U.N. Security Council has imposed clear sanctions on North Korea and it is important to enforce them.”

U.N. sanctions, in place for more than a decade, have outlawed exports of luxury goods to the communist country in an attempt to force it to cease nuclear testing and abandon its missile program.

“The United Nations Security Council has imposed clear sanctions on North Korea, and it is important to maintain them,” Sigrid Kaag, minister of Foreign Trade said, adding that the agency was “entirely justified” in confiscating the vodka.