Their prospects of picking up your work have receded further, after the US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) made i

US bans North Korean outsourcer and its feisty freelancers

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2023-05-24 07:30:03

Their prospects of picking up your work have receded further, after the US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) made it illegal to do business with one: Chinyong Information Technology Cooperation Company, aka Jinyong IT Cooperation Company.

The department stated that North Korea "generates significant revenue through the deployment of IT workers who fraudulently obtain employment with companies around the world, including in the technology and virtual currency industries."

Treasury believes North Korea has thousands of such staff on the books – most working in Russia or China and sending their pay packets home to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) so it can build weapons of mass destruction and missiles.

"In some cases, DPRK IT workers can each earn more than $300,000 per year," Treasury stated. "These workers deliberately obfuscate their identities, locations, and nationalities, typically using fake personas, proxy accounts, stolen identities, and falsified or forged documentation to apply for jobs at these companies."