The United States Treasury Department has sanctioned Korea Sobaeksu Trading Company, along with three individuals from North Korea, Kim Se Un, Jo Kyong Hun, and Myong Chol Min, for operating a fraudulent remote IT employment network that helped channel illegal income to the regime in Pyongyang. These actors bypassed sanctions imposed by the United States and the United Nations by placing North Korean personnel into foreign technology sectors using fake names and forged documents. The scheme contributed financial and logistical support to North Korea’s weapons development programs.
Skilled IT workers from the DPRK were sent to countries such as China, Russia, and Vietnam. From there, they used falsified credentials, stolen identities, and remote login setups to infiltrate companies based in the United States and other nations. These operatives frequently disguised themselves using pop-culture-themed profiles, such as Minions-themed emails, while conducting cyber operations, including malware deployment and data exfiltration.
A U.S.-based facilitator, Christina Marie Chapman from Arizona, was sentenced to 8.5 years in prison. Christina Chapman maintained a large collection of remotely accessed laptops, totaling more than 90 systems, which enabled North Korean workers to appear as if they were operating from within the United States. Her operation ran from late 2020 through 2023 and helped generate more than seventeen million dollars through unauthorized means. In addition, she shipped devices to locations close to the North Korean border and supported technical infrastructure that allowed these workers to penetrate the networks of over three hundred American organizations, including entities in aerospace, media, and automotive sectors. She’s now ordered to forfeit funds and serve three years of supervised release.
This move, following the earlier designation of North Korean hacker Song Kum Hyok linked to the Andariel group, reflects the ongoing efforts by the United States to dismantle the financial pipelines and digital operations used by Pyongyang to circumvent international sanctions.
