North Korea sent me abroad to be a secret IT worker

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c15wk77zxngo

54•tellarin•5h ago

Comments

yapyap•4h ago

Odd that he was sent abroad to do it, I always assumed they just did it from NK instead of abroad.

Also only having to give 85% to the regime seems pretty weird to me, it’d seem more logical to give 100% to the regime and have them provide the workers with a very cheap bed and food

dlachausse•3h ago

They probably hoped that the remaining 15% was just enough to keep the workers from defecting. That combined with the threat to brutally torture and kill their family that remained in North Korea were probably pretty effective motivators to stay loyal to the regime.

apwell23•1h ago

No. They don't need to worry about defections. Unless the guy really wants condemn his whole extended family and next 7 generations into labor camps.

tough•1h ago

Its quite presumptuous to assume that

1. Every citizen will have ties or family to -think of- 2. The current regime (which is now on its third generation) will last 7 generations more. 3. You have any descendants at all

furyofantares•35m ago

I admit this is a presumption, but I doubt they send people out without leverage of some sort.

throawaywpg•56m ago

some NK do choose that option

dizhn•3h ago

Maybe it's not so bad in North Korea? :)

yapyap•3h ago

lol.

deadbabe•1h ago

It’s bad but not as bad as we’re made to believe, people still have lives worth living. They live, they laugh, they love. They do fun normal stuff, they have free thoughts, they have family.

tdeck•1h ago

Every regime needs some way to encourage people other than "we'll kill you if you don't". Letting them keep 15% makes the work more attractive.

horns4lyfe•3h ago

Tech employers would of course rather pay the North Korean regime than hire Americans at competitive wages

crop_rotation•3h ago

I doubt these North Koreans are getting hired due to wage disparities (these are roles supposed to be in the US where they have a contact person in the US), more like they have perfected the interview process as the most important thing in their life.

phendrenad2•2h ago

I got the impression from the article he was working with people in Turkey and Hungary to use their identities to get jobs in the UK and US. So US company found this amazing Hungarian dev who would work for 1/5 what an American would ask for, but they paid for it either way their privacy (hey wait a minute, sounds familiar...)

tough•1h ago

there was recently this soham dude on SV/YC doing the rounds a few weeks ago

if all you do everyday is interview, you obviously get great at it

gscott•27m ago

You do in some cases get a team of 10 North Koreans. Average ceo would fire 10 employees to every one NK employee, get some sort of bonus for reducing expenses, cry over the lost jobs on his new yacht while waving to Jeff.

baxtr•2h ago

> Jin-su spent most of his time trying to secure fraudulent identities which he could use to apply for jobs. He would first pose as Chinese, and contact people in Hungary, Turkey and other countries to ask them to use their identity in exchange for a percentage of his earnings, he told the BBC.
"If you put an 'Asian face' on that profile, you'll never get a job." He would then use those borrowed identities to approach people in Western Europe for their identities, which he'd use to apply for jobs in the US and Europe. Jin-su often found success targeting UK citizens.

"With a little bit of chat, people in the UK passed on their identities so easily," he said.

Interesting. I was under the impression that most large employers perform basic background checks on new employees?

apwell23•1h ago

> basic background checks on new employees?

yes background check is done on UK person's identity and then Jin-su shows up to the job.

This is a happening a lot for regular tech jobs. Person who interviews and person who shows up for job are completely different ppl. we had to start taking screenshots of faces in interview so we can compare. This is happening big time.

baxtr•1h ago

Ok makes sense. So only once you see his face in the interview you realize it’s not the UK person?

ManuelKiessling•6m ago

Over the past years I was approached multiple times with innocent sounding emails that clearly had the goal to use my identity in the way described here.

I‘ve always simply ignored these.

Is there a better way?

deadbabe•1h ago

perfect example of why you shouldn’t bother hiring these cheap offshore engineers.

you’re hiring an engineer thousands of miles away in another country for a fraction of the cost of an American engineer and you just assume they can be trusted with access to your most sensitive data and systems? And that they even are who they say they are and not just a frontman for some cabal?

jfengel•44m ago

How trustworthy is that American?

You know that the North Korean is untrustworthy, but that's kind of a special case. Is a random American more trustworthy than a random Bangladeshi or Slovakian?

I suppose that you have a bit more ability to do background checks on US citizens. But those background checks aren't so great, either.

graemep•36m ago

A random person in your own country is more trustworthy for two reasons.

1. background checks 2. more ability to meet face to face. 3. ability to go after them for wrongdoing (either civil cases or chances of getting the police to follow up on anything criminal.

forinti•1h ago

But are they any good? I suppose they must be, as they seem to retain their jobs, but how do they rank overall?

Also, I tend to think that maintaining these interactions going might be a way to let more information into Naughty Korea and might actually have a positive influence in the long run.

kibwen•1h ago

The risk is not the quality of the work that the person might do. The risk is that you now have a state-controlled North Korean asset operating inside your security perimeter.

vinceguidry•9m ago

They're very good. They get training directly from the regime.