50 years ago, Sweden sold 1,000 cars to North Korea – To this day, they are waiting for 300 million euros

In Sweden, one has been waiting since 1974 for North Korea to pay its bills. Meanwhile, one is waiting for 300 million euros. The reason for this is 1,000 cars sold to the state.

What was the agreement? In 1974, the European state of Sweden made a deal with North Korea. In the 1970s, North Korea’s economy was surprisingly good, and the country was not yet as isolated as it is today.

Sweden hoped to gain several advantages from a trade deal with North Korea:

• On the one hand, they wanted to benefit from the country’s upswing. In the 1970s, things were going quite well for North Korea.
• On the other hand, they wanted to gain access to the country’s natural resources. Sweden could have benefited in the long run from this.

North Korea found the proposal great: The establishment of diplomatic and economic relations would have greatly benefited North Korea and would have reduced its isolation.

When the Swedish car manufacturer Volvo then offered the country 1,000 units of the Volvo 144, they agreed.

Our title image is a symbolic image.

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To this day, Sweden waits for North Korea to pay its bills

What happened next? After the cars were shipped, the debts began to accumulate. North Korea had no intention of repaying the debts.

But the Swedes have not forgotten the trade: The Swedish government keeps track of all investments made by its companies abroad. The Swedish Export Credit Agency (EKN) offers companies and banks credit insurance (guarantees) to protect them from defaults on export transactions. And here, payment defaults from export transactions like the North Korea deal are also listed. Meanwhile, the debts have accumulated to around 300 million euros.

Where does the large sum come from? As a Swedish official explained to Newsweek, the agency responsible for insurance against defaults abroad checks North Korea’s accounts twice a year to see if North Korea has paid its bills.

Then, they also calculate inflation and applicable interest on the total amount. After 50 years, this adds up to quite a large sum.

More on cars: A user has actually installed graphics cards in his car to mine Bitcoin. This has upset many gamers because the driver thought it was quite funny:

BMW driver installs several RTX 3080 in his car, just to annoy you