The tobacco industry, including the market leader Imperial Tobacco, is quick to yell “freedom of expression” whenever governments take measures to curtail its ability to advertise. (See their so-far-unsuccessful attempt to overturn federal legislation on tobacco sponsorship, for example.)

So it’s a little surprising to learn that Imperial’s owners, BAT, are in a business partnership with the North Korean government, jointly running a company churning out cigarettes (official motto: “Because life in North Korea just isn’t awful enough without throwing lung cancer, emphysema and heart disease into the mix”).

BAT has done its best to keep the arrangement a secret:

BAT has never mentioned the factory in its annual accounts, and it is thought that many shareholders are unaware of its links with the country.

The discovery of the secret factory comes two years after BAT was forced to pull out of Myanmar, formerly Burma, under pressure from the UK government and human rights campaigners. The human rights record of the communist regime in North Korea is widely regarded as even worse than that of the brutal military dictatorship in Burma….

Even one of BAT’s own public relations officers, in Japan, was astonished when questioned about the joint venture company. “Business with North Korea?” he asked. “Where there are no human rights?” The depth of concern about the suffering of people in North Korea is expressed in a series of reports by the United Nations and human rights watchdogs.

Quick question: just how many court cases and public lobbying efforts has BAT has launched to promote freedom of expression in North Korea? And how quickly would they leap to the defence of a dissident who, say, complained that state-sponsored tobacco is killing people?