British American Tobacco to pay $635m for North Korea sanctions breaches

British American Tobacco is to wage $635m (£512m) positive involvement to US authorities aft a subsidiary admitted selling cigarettes to North Korea successful usurpation of sanctions.

The US authorities said the colony related to BAT enactment successful North Korea betwixt 2007 and 2017.

BAT's caput Jack Bowles said "we profoundly regret the misconduct".

The US has imposed terrible sanctions connected North Korea implicit its atomic and ballistic rocket activities.

Tuesday's colony was betwixt BAT and America's Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control.

BAT is 1 of the world's largest baccy multinationals and 1 of the UK's 10 biggest companies. It owns large cigaret brands including Lucky Strike, Dunhill and Pall Mall.

In a statement, BAT said it had entered into a "deferred prosecution statement with DOJ and a civilian colony statement with OFAC, and an indirect BAT subsidiary successful Singapore has entered into a plea statement with DOJ".

The DOJ said BAT had besides conspired to defraud fiscal institutions successful bid to get them to process transactions connected behalf of North Korean entities.

North Korean person Kim Jong Un is known to beryllium a dense smoker. Last twelvemonth the US attempted to get the UN Security Council to prohibition baccy exports to North Korea, but this was vetoed by Russia and China.

The justness section besides revealed transgression charges against North Korean banker Sim Hyon-Sop, 39, and Chinese facilitators Qin Guoming, 60, and Han Linlin, 41, for facilitating income of baccy to North Korea.

They were accused of buying leafage baccy for North Korean authorities owned cigaret makers and falsifying documents to instrumentality US banks into processing transactions worthy $74m. North Korean manufacturers including 1 owned by the subject made astir $700m acknowledgment to these deals.

The DOJ announced rewards of $1m for accusation starring to the seizure of Mr Sim and $500,000 each for Mr Qin and Mr Han, who each stay astatine large.

Pyongyang has for years faced aggregate rounds of pugnacious sanctions successful effect to its ballistic rocket launches and atomic tests.

However that has not deterred Mr Kim from continuing to make the country's weapons programme.