North Korea has dispatched about 100 IT workers to establish a new base of operations in the Chinese border city of Dandong—a significant shift in the regime’s overseas money-making operations as relations with Beijing warm.
According to a Daily NK source in China recently, the group of young men in their 20s and 30s entered Dandong from Sinuiju, North Pyongan province, in late August.
The workers underwent training for overseas deployment in Pyongyang and waited months for their departure order. They remained on standby, ready to leave for China at a moment’s notice, and immediately departed once the order came down.
North Korean authorities appear to have waited for the right moment to send the workers to China. However, given that the IT workers were dispatched before North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited Beijing to participate in China’s Victory Day celebrations, the move was seemingly planned in advance.
The relatively large dispatch of North Korean IT workers to Dandong is the first since the COVID-19 pandemic, the source said.
A strategic shift to Dandong
North Korean IT workers typically enter China in small groups of about ten and establish bases primarily in Shenyang, Liaoning province, or in Jilin province. Few groups have operated in Dandong.
North Korean IT workers usually favor Liaoning or Jilin provinces, both close to the North Korean border with unrestricted internet access. Despite its proximity to North Korea, Dandong is typically avoided by IT workers—who prioritize security—because the city is closely monitored for trade officials and North Korean laborers.
However, as relations between North Korea and China thaw, the regime is increasingly dispatching workers across the border.
The North Korean IT workers sent to Dandong have been divided into roughly ten groups of 15, which will rent apartments and other homes in the city. They will live together and earn foreign currency by developing apps, managing websites and similar activities.
Given the intense pressure North Korean authorities place on overseas personnel to generate foreign currency, the IT workers will likely also engage in illegal activities such as hacking and cryptocurrency theft to earn large amounts of foreign exchange.
North Korea’s dispatch of workers overseas has picked up since Kim Jong Un’s summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
Daily NK reported that North Korea dispatched new workers in groups of 40 to 50 to seafood processing plants in Dandong and Donggang, Liaoning province, between Oct. 10 and 12.
“North Korea’s labor dispatches were intermittent for a while, but recently the authorities have begun sending workers in earnest again,” the source said. “The number of workers dispatched to clothing or seafood processing plants has noticeably increased.”
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: dailynk.com
