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Husband of sportswear brand Andar's founder sentenced to prison for transactions with North Korean hackers

Published: 16 Nov. 2025, 13:31

[GETTY IMAGES]

The husband of the founder of sportswear brand Andar — who previously served as an executive director at the company — was sentenced to prison in an appellate trial and taken into custody in court for conducting illegal transactions with a North Korean hacker group.

The Seoul Western District Court dismissed both the defendant’s and the prosecution’s appeals and upheld the original sentence of one year in prison and one year of disqualification from certain rights, such as his rights to become a civil servant or to run for election, for violating the National Security Act. The court also ordered the defendant, surnamed Oh, into immediate custody.

From July 2014 to May 2015, Oh operated an illegal private server for an online game and allegedly contacted a North Korean hacker directly via a Chinese messenger app to obtain a core file that would allow users to bypass the game’s security system.

The hacker was reportedly the head of the development team at the Rungra Information Center under the Rungrado Trading General Corporation, an affiliate of Bureau 39 of the Workers’ Party of Korea — an organization that reportedly generates foreign currency for the regime. While the center appears to be a legitimate trading company, it is in fact used to develop and sell illegal programs — such as auto-play software for online games and tools for distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks — which are used to fund the North Korean regime.

The man was introduced to the hacker after the game company strengthened its security, making it difficult to patch the connection program to his private server. Investigators found that he had commissioned cyberattacks — including hacking and DDoS attacks — against competing private servers. He paid 23.8 million won ($16,400) over six separate transactions in exchange for the hacking tools.

“This crime — which involved interactions with a member of the North Korean regime engaged in creating and distributing illegal programs used to fund its ruling apparatus and included the provision of money — poses a serious threat to national security and carries significant social risk,” said the lower court. “However, we cannot conclude that the defendant actively sympathized with the North Korean regime or its ideology in committing the crime.”

Sportswear Andar logo [ANDAR]

Oh appealed the ruling on the grounds that the sentence was too harsh. The prosecutors also appealed, arguing that it was too lenient.

“There has been no change in sentencing conditions compared to the first trial, and the original sentence does not fall outside the reasonable bounds of judicial discretion,” ruled the appellate court. “Both the defendant’s and the prosecution’s claims regarding the severity of the sentence are without merit.”

The man is the husband of the founder of Andar and formerly led the company’s online distribution and marketing efforts as an executive director. Andar was acquired by EcoMarketing in 2021 and is currently operated under professional management.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY HYEON YE-SEUL [[email protected]]