Reported by The Associated Press

Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson, with U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves for the District of Columbia, speaks during a news conference on Tuesday at the Department of Justice in Washington.

Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

WASHINGTON — A British tobacco company has agreed to pay more than $629 million to settle allegations that it did illegal business with North Korea in violation of U.S. sanctions, the Justice Department said Tuesday.

British American Tobacco, one of the largest tobacco companies in the world, entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department, while the company’s Singapore subsidiary pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit bank fraud and violate sanctions.

The London-based BAT said in its own statement that the settlement concerns sales from 2007 through 2017 and that the company has since taken steps to improve its business practices.

North Korea faces stringent U.S. and international sanctions going back nearly two decades for its nuclear weapons program and development of intercontinental ballistic missiles. Pyongyang has continued to research and test more nuclear weapons. It has also worked to evade sanctions with the cooperation of allies like China and illicit trade with barred countries and companies.

Smuggled tobacco products are regarded as a major source of revenue for North Korea’s nuclear and weapons of mass destruction programs, the Justice Department said.

The penalty is the largest arising from North Korea sanctions violations in the Justice Department’s history, said Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen.

Read full report: https://www.npr.org/2023/04/25/1172059284/british-american-tobacco-north-korea-sanctions