The Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT), a U.S.-led body tracking compliance with UN sanctions on North Korea, released a sweeping new report on Wednesday detailing how Pyongyang’s IT worker scheme has spread across at least 40 countries — and how several nations have begun pushing back. The report estimates 100,000 North Korean workers are deployed abroad, with the vast majority in China and Russia, and says they generated up to $800 million in foreign currency for the regime last year, up to 90% of which is confiscated by government officials.
Multiple countries have opened legal cases following the report. In Argentina, authorities investigated and froze assets connected to Antonia Doroganova, accused of laundering funds for North Korean IT workers. In Pakistan, the Federal Investigation Agency charged Syeda Aliya Batool Zaidi with providing fraudulent identity documents to North Korean workers, along with two alleged accomplices. The MSMT also noted that North Korean IT workers in China are facing “stricter and increased surveillance” from Chinese authorities following incidents in which workers were arrested for alleged espionage — in one case for stealing Chinese military secrets. The friction with China has forced North Korea to shift some workers to border cities where they can use Chinese internet without physically entering the country.
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- Nations take action on North Korean IT workers after UN report — The Record by Recorded Future