CC Global: North Korea, Land of Lincolns

BY ROBERT KIM – POSTED ON FEBRUARY 21, 2018



On December 28, 2011, the funeral of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il displayed to the world a sight that many found shocking: a Lincoln Continental from the 1970s used as the official hearse. The North Korean regime owning an American luxury car over 30 years old and using it as the final conveyance of its deceased leader was difficult for many to understand. There was considerable discussion in automotive and general news media about this sighting, some of which doubted that the car was a real Lincoln and not a copy on a Soviet-made chassis, and some of which questioned how the North Korean regime could have obtained an American car. The discussion of how North Korea could have obtained “a” Lincoln Continental was badly uninformed, however. The North Korean regime has a fleet of Lincolns, not just one.



This screenshot of the funeral procession television broadcast shows how unobservant the earlier reports were. With the 1975-76 Continental serving as a hearse not in sight, there are three other 1974-76 Continentals visible, as well as a 1995-97 Town Car. There is a 1975-76 Continental carrying a huge portrait of Kim Jong Il, trailed by another 1975-76 Continental bearing an almost equally large wreath, and flanked by what appears to be a 1974 Continental made into a four door convertible. So there are at least four 1974-76 Continentals in North Korea, along with at least one 1990s Town Car.

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Here are the three 1975-76 Continentals lined up in the funeral procession, with the portrait and wreath bearers leading the hearse, which is really a stretched sedan with the coffin laid on top of the roof.



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Now we must say farewell to these long-lost products of the American automobile industry that have spent their lives serving three generations of one of the worst regimes that the world has ever seen and are likely to have to continue their servitude for many years to come. Each likely spent two decades conveying Kim Il Sung (d. 1994), and since then they have passed to his son Kim Jong Il and then his grandson Kim Jong Un. They are a bizarre family tradition that cannot come to an end too soon.