British American Tobacco, the world's second-largest cigarette company, has been secretly operating a factory in North Korea for the past four years.

BAT has never mentioned the factory in its annual accounts.

The anti-smoking group ASH said: "It seems that there is no regime so awful and no country so repressive that BAT does not want to do business there."

Asked about North Korea's human rights record, the [BAT] spokeswoman said: "It is not for us to interfere with the way governments run countries." She said BAT could "lead by example" and assist the country's development by meeting internationally accepted standards of businesses practice and corporate social responsibility.

The "altruistic" angle notwithstanding, it seems to me this is a nasty piece of hypocrisy (blatant capitalism capitalising, pun intended, on the vagaries of a non-capitalist society). All the little cows are disgusted.