North Korea sent me abroad to be a secret factor in information technology. My salary funded the system

Gin Soo over the years says he used hundreds of fake identity to apply for a distance information technology with Western companies. It was part of a very secret plan to raise funds for North Korea.

He told the BBC in a rare interview that reconciling multiple jobs throughout the United States and Europe would make it at least $ 5,000 (3,750 pounds) per month. He said that some colleagues will earn much more.

Before his defection, Jin Soo – whose name was changed to protect his identity – was one of the thousands believed to have been sent abroad to China and Russia, or countries in Africa and other places, to participate in the mysterious operation run by North Korea’s secret.

North Korea information technology workers are closely monitored and few spoke to the media, but Jin Soo has provided a wide testimony on the BBC, with an insight into a daily life look for those who work in the fraud process, and how they work. His direct account confirms a lot of what has been appreciated in the United Nations Security and Cice Security reports.

He said that 85 % of what happened was sent to fund the system. North Korea, which suffers from financial hardship, has been subjected to international sanctions for years.

“We know that it is like theft, but we accept it as our fate, it is still much better than it was when we were in North Korea.”

Secret technology workers are generated from $ 250 million to $ 600 million annually to North Korea, according to the UN Security Council report published in March 2024. The scheme has flourished in the epidemic, when work has become common, and has since increased since then.

Most workers after a fixed salary to send it to the system, but in some cases, they stole data or penetrated their employers and demanded a ransom.

Last year, An American court directed North Korea 14 Those who claimed that he received $ 88 million by working to camouflage and blackmail American companies for six years.

Four North Koreans, who were allegedly used as the fraudulent identities to secure information technology from a remote coercion company in the United States last month.

Jin Sue was a system of information technology in the system in China for several years before he was backward. He and his colleagues said mostly in teams of 10.

Access to the internet is limited in North Korea, but abroad, information technology workers can work more easily. They need to hide their nationality not only because they can obtain more salaries by impersonating the personality of Westerners, but due to the extensive international sanctions that North Korea suffers, in response to nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.

This scheme is separate from piracy in North Korea, which also collects funds for the regime. Earlier this year, the Lazaros group – a notorious piracy group that works to work in North Korea, although it has never recognized it – It is believed that it was stolen $ 1.5 billion (1.1 billion pounds) from the encrypted currency company bybit.

Jin Soo spent most of his time trying to secure fraudulent identities that he could use to apply for jobs. He told the BBC: “He would first form a Chinese, and call people in Hungary, Turkey and other countries to ask them to use their identity in exchange for a percentage of his profits.

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

Then these borrowed identities are used to approach people in Western Europe for their identities, which he used to apply for jobs in the United States and Europe. Jin Soo often found a success targeting UK citizens.

“With a little chat, people in the United Kingdom have passed their identities easily,” he said.

Information technology workers who speak English sometimes takes on the process of applications. But the jobs on independent sites do not necessarily require face -to -face interviews, and daily interactions are often made on platforms like Slack, making it easier to pretend you are someone not.

Jin Soo told the BBC that he mostly targeted the US market, “because salaries are higher in American companies.” He claimed that many IT workers find jobs, and companies often employ more than North Korea. “This happens a lot,” he said.

It is understood that IT workers collect their profits through the facilitators in the West and China. Last week, an American woman was sentenced to more than eight years in prison For crimes associated with the help of North Korea IT workers find jobs and send them money.

BBC cannot independently verify the details of the Jin-Su Certificate, but through PsCoreAnd a human rights organization in North Korea, we have read a testimony from the other information technology factor that supports Jin Soo’s claims.

The British Broadcasting Corporation also spoke to a different publication, Hyun-Seung Lee, in which the North Koreans met while traveling as a regime businessman in China. He emphasized that they have similar experiences.

The British Broadcasting Corporation spoke to multiple employees in the security sector and online software development who say they have discovered dozens of candidates who are suspected of being IT workers in North Korea during their recruitment operations.

Rob Henley, co -founder of Ally Security in the US, recently employed a series of vacant jobs in his company, and believes he met up to 30 IT workers in North Korea in this process. “Initially, it was a somewhat game, like trying to know who was real and who was fake, but he became very annoying,” he said.

Ultimately, he resorted to the question of the candidates in video calls to show that it was the time they were.

“We were only facing US candidates for these situations. It should have been at least light abroad. But I never saw daylight.”

In March, the Poland -based Vidoc Security Laba Laboratory, a video clip of a remote interview that he had made, seemed to be the candidate using the artificial intelligence program to hide their face. He said that after speaking to the experts, he believed that the candidate could be the IT factor in North Korea.

We called the North Korean embassy in London to put allegations in this story. They did not want.

North Korea sends its workers abroad for decades to earn a government foreign currency. Up to 100,000 abroad as a factory or restaurant workers, most of them in China and Russia.

After several years of living in China, Jin Soo said that “feeling imprisoned” on his repressive working conditions was built.

“We were not allowed to go out and we had to stay inside all the time,” he said. “You cannot exercise, you cannot do what you want.”

However, North Korea’s information technology workers have more freedom to reach the Western media when they are abroad, Jin Sue said. “You see the real world. When we are abroad, we realize that there is something wrong with North Korea.”

However, Jin Soo has claimed a few information technology workers in North Korea who thought about escaping as he did.

“They only take money and return home, and a very few people think about the defection.”

Although they only keep a small percentage of what they earn, it deserves a lot in North Korea. The defect is also very fraught with risk and difficult. Monitoring in China means that most of them are arrested. Those who succeed in paying attention may not see their families again, and their relatives may face punishment for their departure.

Jin Soo is still working in it now. He says that the skills he sharpened at work helped him to settle in his new life.

Since he does not work multiple functions with fake identifiers, it earns less than it was when he was working in the North Korean system. But because he can keep more profits, in general, he has more money in his pocket.

“I used to earn money by doing illegal things. But now I work hard and earn the money I deserve.”