U.S. offers $5M reward for information on North Korean IT firms exploiting workers
Published: 13 Dec. 2024, 10:46
![This image, captured from a State Department account on X, shows an offer of a reward for information on North Korean IT firms and workers. [YONHAP]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2024/12/13/517429c8-b444-4052-bcbe-73c332f460f6.jpg)
This image, captured from a State Department account on X, shows an offer of a reward for information on North Korean IT firms and workers. [YONHAP]
The United States offered Thursday to provide a reward of up to $5 million for information on two North Korean IT firms, accusing them of exploiting workers to generate revenue to support the reclusive regime in Pyongyang.
The State Department announced the reward for a tip on Yanbian Silverstar Network Technology in China and Volasys Silverstar in Russia. It also made public the names of 14 people, including Jong Song-hwa, the CEO of both companies, and Yanbian Silverstar President Kim Ryu-song and Volasys Silverstar President Ri Kyong-sik.
"These IT firms engaged in the exportation of North Korean IT workers, managers and support staff to Yanji in China's Jilin Province and Vladivostok, Russia to generate revenue by deceiving the U.S. and other businesses worldwide into hiring them as freelance IT workers," the department said in a release.
"The companies then laundered their ill-gotten gains to benefit the DPRK," it added, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
The 14 individuals and unnamed associates used the stolen, borrowed and purchased identities of hundreds of U.S. persons to conceal their identities and worked with some 130 North Korean IT workers to generate at least $88 million in illicit revenue for the North, according to the department.
They also applied for and obtained remote employment as IT workers with U.S. businesses and organizations, and registered internet domain names used to host websites designed to trick U.S. employers into thinking IT worker applicants and employees were currently or previously employed by reputable U.S. businesses, it said.
Moreover, they conspired with U.S. persons to purchase laptops or receive laptops from U.S. employers, and installed remote access programs on them and extorted payments from the employers by threatening to release sensitive information online.
In July, the department offered to provide a reward of up to $10 million for information on Rim Jong-hyok, a North Korean cyber actor targeting America's critical infrastructure.
In May, it announced a reward of up to $5 million for information on three North Korean IT workers and their manager who were engaged in a scheme enabling the workers to get illicit telework employment with false identities belonging to U.S. citizens.
Yonhap
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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