North Korean hacker slapped with US sanctions over cyber scam

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un uses a computer at a school in Pyongyang, North Korea, in this photo released by the Korean Central News Agency on June 4, 2024. — North Korean leader Kim Jong-un look at a computer at a school in Pyongyang, in this file photo released by the North's state-run Korean Central News Agency on June 4, 2024.

SEOUL, July 9 (AJP) - A North Korean hacker, accused of being involved in a scheme for illegal cyber activities, was slapped with sanctions along with several Russian firms, the U.S. Department of the Treasury said Monday.

The department said it sanctioned Song Kum-hyok, linked to a hacking group run by the North's Reconnaissance General Bureau, known as Andariel, for facilitating North Korean IT workers to find remote jobs overseas with "falsified identities and nationalities."

These workers, mostly based in China and Russia, allegedly installed malware into company networks to "generate revenue for the [North Korean] regime."

Along with Song, the department also sanctioned one Russian individual and four entities "involved in a Russia-based IT worker scheme that has generated revenue for the [North]."

Stressing the "importance of vigilance on the [North's] continued efforts to clandestinely fund its [weapon of mass destruction] and ballistic missile programs," Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Michael Faulkender said the U.S. "remains committed to using all available tools to disrupt the [Kim Jong-un] regime's efforts to circumvent sanctions through its digital asset theft, attempted impersonation of Americans, and malicious cyber-attacks."

Under the sanctions, all their assets are frozen, and they are barred from doing business in the U.S.

Im Yoon-seo lyseo0330@ajupress.com