A high-tech Swiss robot making firm has rushed to deny selling the bots to North Korea after they were pictured operating in a factory during a visit by dictator Kim Jong-un.
The propaganda photo that was distributed by North Korean state media shows the dictator himself with two military aides looking on as a robot that reportedly originally came from Swiss technology firm ABB is hard at work.
The photo raised questions about whether the Swiss company had been illegally selling to the North Korean dictator where UN sanctions expressly forbid such sales.
However, when contacted by Central European News (CEN), a company spokesman said: “ABB complies with all applicable trade sanctions and undertakes not to deliver ABB equipment nor services to the DPR of Korea. That said, we cannot rule out that some of our equipment may have been resold to DPR of Korea without our knowledge or permission.”
It is suspected that it had been sold on by somebody that purchased an original robot, and then somehow smuggled into the country.
It’s not the first time that an ABB device has ended up photographed while being used in North Korea. Three years ago there was another instance in which a robot was filmed working in a rocket production factory.
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Story By: Michael Leidig, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News
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