North Koreans disguise as Japanese for IT jobs, says Japan

Japan on Tuesday claimed to have unearthed cases of North Koreans posing as Japanese nationals to secure IT service jobs within the country.

The government said North Korean IT workers have been earning salaries in Japan, purportedly utilizing the funds to support Pyongyang’s ballistic missile and nuclear weapons development programs. The Japanese foreign ministry said that North Korea was sending IT workers to Japan “who earn money by lying about their identity…to fund North Korea’s nuclear and missile development.” North Korea forges certificates and identity documents, leveraging acquaintances or intermediaries in Japan to infiltrate the country’s IT workforce. “In some cases, the middleman receives a portion of the salary, while the remaining amount is remitted to North Korea,” the ministry said. Japan suspects these workers may be involved in malicious cyber activities, such as information theft, prompting the decision to repatriate all North Korean workers who have access to company assets or economic resources.

The Japanese police said they detected three such infiltration cases and alerted companies to pay attention to those workers who do not speak Japanese naturally, do not accept videoconferences, or accept salaries lower than the market rate. In 2023, South Korea and the United States pledged to work together to monitor loopholes Pyongyang uses to finance its nuclear and missile programs, despite the rigid UN sanctions that weigh on the isolated country. In January, Seoul also raised concerns over North Korea using its workers from technology companies abroad to insert malicious code into software programs developed by these companies to steal cryptocurrency. EFE emg-yk/up/ssk