North Korea sent me abroad to become a secret IT worker. My wages are financed mode

Jin-Su says he has used hundreds of fake IDs for many years to apply for a remote IT work with Western companies. It was part of a huge secret scheme for funds for North Korea.

Juggling several jobs in the US and Europe will make it at least $ 5,000 (3,750 pounds) a month, he said BBC in a rare interview. Some colleagues, he said, earn much more.

Before he crossed, Gene -wa – whose name was changed to defend his identity – was one of the thousands, presumably sent abroad to China and Russia, Africa and other places to take part in the shadow operation, which is run by secret North Korea.

The North Korean IT workers are inferiorly inferior, and few talked to the media, but gin-su gave extensive testimony to the BBC, giving a revealing understanding of what everyday life is for those who work in the scam and how they work. His first -hand account confirms most of what was evaluated in UN and Cybersecurity reports.

He said 85% of what he earned was sent back to finance the regime. North Korea, related to cash, has been under international sanctions for many years.

“We know it’s like a robbery, but we just accept it as our fate,” said Jin-su, “it’s still much better than we were in North Korea.”

According to the UN Security Council report, for North Korea, he creates secret IT workers every year.

Most workers after a stable salary go back to the mode, but in some cases they stole the data or hacked their employers and demanded ransom.

Last year, US court accused 14 northern Koreans Which allegedly earned $ 88 million, working in masks and demanding US companies for six years.

Another four North Koreans who allegedly used false identities to provide a distant IT work for cryptocurrencies, were charged last month.

Jin-Sa was an IT worker mode in China a few years before defects. He and his colleagues will mostly work in 10 teams, he said BBC.

Internet access is limited to North Korea, but these IT workers can work abroad. They need to disguise their nationality not only because they can get the most by presenting themselves to Westerners, but because of the broad international sanctions of North Korea, it is primarily in response to its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.

This scheme is separate from the hacking of North Korea, which also raise money for the regime. Earlier this year, the Lazarus group is a boring hacking group who realized that they were working in North Korea, though they never confessed to it – Count.

Gin-su spent most of his time trying to provide fake identities he could use to apply for. He first looks like the Chinese and refers to people in Hungary, Turkey and other countries to ask them to use their identity in exchange for the percentage of their profits, he said BBC.

“If you put the” Asian face “on this profile, you never get a job.”

He will then use these borrowed identities to address people in Western Europe for his identity he used to apply for a job in the US and Europe. Gin-su often occurs with the successor of the UK.

“With little communication, people in the UK so easily conveyed their identity,” he said.

IT workers who speak better in English sometimes process the application process. But jobs on freelance sites also do not necessarily require interviews to face, and often the interaction of everyday interaction occurs on platforms such as Slack, which facilitates the appearance that you don’t.

Jin-su said the BBC that he was mostly targeted by the US market, “because in US companies wages above.” He claimed that so many IT workers found work, often companies inadvertently hire more than one North Korean. “It happens a lot,” he said.

It is clear that IT workers collect their profits through the networks of the Fasilitators based in the West and China. Last week, an American woman was sentenced to more than eight years in prison For the crimes related to the assistance of North Korea IT workers, find a job and send them money.

BBC cannot independently check the specific testimony of gin-su but through PscoreThe organization, which stands for North Korean human rights, we read the testimony from another IT worker who has moved that supports the requirements of the ginas.

The BBC also talked to another defector Hyon Lee Lee, who met the Northern Koreans working in it while he traveled as a businessman in China. He confirmed that they had a similar experience.

The BBC talked to several hiring executives in the cybersecurity and software development sector, which said they have noticed dozens of candidates they suspect are North Korean IT work during the hiring processes.

Rob Henley, co-founder of Ally Security in the US, recently hired a number of remote vacancies at his firm, and believes he interrogated up to 30 North Korean IT workers in the process. “Initially, it looked like a game to some extent, as an attempt to find out who is true and who was false, but it is annoying quite quickly,” he said.

After all, he turned to the candidates for the video to show him what they were.

“We only hired candidates from the US for these positions. It should have been at least light on the street. But I never saw daylight.”

Back in March, Dawid Moczadło, co -founder of the Vidoc Security laboratory based in Poland, shared a video about the remote interview he conducted, where the candidate seemed to use artificial intelligence software to mask their face. He said that after talking to experts, he believed that the candidate could become a North Korean IT worker.

We contacted the North Korea Embassy in London to charge them in the story. They didn’t answer.

North Korea sends its workers abroad for decades to earn a state foreign currency. Up to 100,000 work abroad as factory or restaurant workers, mainly in China and Russia.

After several years of life in China, Jin-su said that “a sense of imprisonment” over its oppressing working conditions.

“We were not allowed to go out and had to stay indoors all the time,” he said. “You can’t play sports, you can’t do what you want.”

However, North Korean IT workers have more freedom to access the Western media when they are abroad, Jin-S said. “You see the real world. When we are abroad, we realize that in North Korea something is wrong.”

But despite this, Jin-su claimed that few of the Northern Koreans thought of escape as he did.

“They just take money and return home, few people think about the defect.”

Although they only keep a small share of what they earn, there is a lot in North Korea. The defect is also very risky and difficult. Observation in China means most get. Those few who succeed in defects will never see their families again, and their relatives may face punishment for their departure.

Gin-su still works in it, now it has passed. He says the skills he sewed, working in the mode, helped him get into a new life.

Because it does not work in several jobs with fake certificates, it earns less than when it worked in North Korean mode. But since he can retain his salary, he has more money in his own pocket.

“I used to make money by doing illegal things. But now I work a lot and make money I deserve.”