NORTH Korea has been left with a debt of £2.4billion after stealing 1,000 Volvo 144 cars to use as taxis, it has been revealed.
The Hermit Kingdom agreed to purchase the classic cars from the Scandinavian nation 43 years ago, and has since used them as taxis in the countryside.
But while they received the vehicles they did not get around to footing the £555million (600 million krona) bill, which has since inflated into the billions.
The debt makes up 45 per cent of the money Sweden is owed from 16 other nations, and Pyongyang has never implemented a debt repayment scheme to deal with the accumulating black hole in their finances.
In 2011 North Korea was believed to have a GDP of £9.4billion, before Donald Trump led the UN to place tough economic sanctions on the authoritarian nation as Kim’s nuclear threats risk sparking World War 3.
The four-door Volvo 144 was manufactured between 1966 and 1974, and became the first car produced by the brand that sold more than one million units.
A Volvo official confirmed the carmaker suffered no financial loss, while Swedish foreign ministry spokeswoman Katarina Roslund said her nation remind Kim Jong-Un about the debt twice a year.
It comes amid claims North Korea could be developing algae as a way to work around sanctions imposed by the international community.
The rogue state is reportedly beefing up research to strengthen its energy and food security.
Algae organisms can produce food, fertiliser, feedstock and fuel.
Analysis website 38 North reported the algae industry could gradually "mitigate the negative effects of sanctions both on the country's energy supply and food security”.
The hermit nation has had research facilities, such as open ponds and aquaculture systems, since early 2008.
These facilities, key infrastructure for algae growth, have recently become more complex.
North Korea is very dependent on foreign imports of fuel and food. China has historically been Pyongyang’s main trading partner but Beijing limited refined oil product exports at the beginning of the month.
Algae, when processed, contains a high protein content and it can be used as a food supplement and fertiliser.
38 North reports: "It is not surprising that the North Korean government is developing thousands of rural open ponds producing algae and bigger and more sophisticated sites, whose purpose increasingly looks like algae production.
"The same algae can also contain approximately 20 per cent lipids, which can be processed into biofuels.
"If there were just 100 times more acreage in production and being utilised, the oil yield could be 6.5 per cent of North Korea's 2014 estimated requirements for their entire economy.”