Two executives in Japan were recently issued arrest warrants for charges related to establishing a business that outsourced work to North Korean IT engineers. One of the individuals, a 53-year-old South Korean named Pak Hyon-il, was the president of IT firm ITZ based in Fuchu. The other individual, 42-year-old Toshiron Minomo, who is Japanese, worked for Pak at Robast, a company based in Fukuyama.
Robast obtained application development work from Japanese customers through a business brokering website and outsourced it to North Koreans who were believed to be living in China, without the customers’ knowledge or consent. The police suspect Pak may have connections to a person involved in North Korea’s foreign currency acquisition activities and are investigating whether the money may have been sent to North Korea.
The duo is accused of filing and using false electronic notarized records to inflate Robast’s registered capital to 3 million yen. They have also been accused of unemployment benefit fraud. Hiring North Koreans for IT work may seem cost-effective but comes with risks such as malware and cyber security threats.
By hiring North Korean workers, companies may unknowingly contribute to foreign currency transactions that support illegal activities, violating domestic sanctions. Authorities have issued warnings about hiring North Korean IT contractors who may be posing as Japanese nationals to finance North Korea’s nuclear and missile development. Signs to watch out for include suspicious use of the Japanese language, IP addresses, and names not matching names for payment.
