Another day and another opportunity for the DPRK to illegally funnel money back to the regime in Pyongyang. New sanctions are added continuously to try and stop these illicit activities but this doesn’t deter the DPRK. Pyongyang Papers have uncovered yet another scheme to evade sanctions, an old tried and tested method – dispatching IT workers globally to create revenue streams.

Nefarious cyber engagement

DPRK IT workers are located all over the world, hiding their nationality and identities. The latest report by the former UN DPRK Panel of Experts details new tactics that have emerged and the IT workers now offer to provide their services free of charge to build trust and then seek long term contracts. Small companies are often targeted due to fewer hiring restrictions and are often approached using social media rather than freelance platforms. The priority is, unsurprisingly, blockchain and cryptocurrency projects. It can’t be argued that the regime doesn’t provide diligent and honest workers though, helpfully finding vulnerabilities to exploit or build into platforms to steal funds or conduct heists at a later date.

Overseas IT workers are able to earn $3000 – $5000 a month on average, although that figure can rocket to $10000 – $20000 a month for a highly skilled technician. Keep in mind reader, that this is what they are paid and excludes the ongoing theft that is sent home to fund the regime! If these IT workers are paid this much, it must be a significant amount of money routed back to the regime of Kim Jong Un to be spent on nuclear and missile development. All while the majority of the country remains firmly repressed with reports of increased thefts due to continued food shortages.

IT companies named and shamed

An dishonest regime needs an equally corrupt establishment to send its’ workers – enter two Guinea-based IT companies, Guinea Information Technology Development Corporation and N’deye & Tou Dista Corporation who have contracted at least 70 North Koreans for employment within their companies. Further investigations appear to show N’deye & Tou Dista Corporation working out of a charming little cybercafé, imaginatively named Cyber Café, in central Conakry. If you know any more about these companies, please do get in contact with us.

Store front of the Cyber Café

So, who are the individuals willing to help a heavily sanctioned regime? Cheick Aboubacar Traore, the President of the Information Technology Development Corporation is no stranger to working with the DPRK. Then following closely in his footsteps is Aissatou Kalissa, the president of the N’deye & Tou Dista Corporation. She been collaborating with the DPRK since at least 2019. Pyongyang Papers received no reply to our offer of comment from N’deye & Tou Dista or its company president. Clearly these two thought they would escape the eyes of the world, left to pursue their own devious ends. However, here at Pyongyang Papers we always aim to expose those committed to helping North Korea avoid sanctions!

Historical Ties

Guinea, of course, has form when it comes to facilitating the DPRK with evading sanctions, having agreed a deal in 2019 for thirty ‘technicians’ to work in the agricultural sector and help support a research center named after none other than Kim Il Sung. The relationship between the two countries began just one year after Guinea found its independence from Spain and then North Korea leader, Kim Il Sung, provided troops following a coup to further their cooperation of security. Guinea also sent military to Pyongyang for training. It is little wonder that Guinea is happy to disregard the sanctions to keep their mutually beneficial relationship going.

We think it is time the government of Guinea take the breach of sanctions, that are taking place on their soil, seriously and work to become a trusted part of the international community. They could start with denouncing the North Korean IT workers that are currently employed and enforcing the international laws surrounding illicit DPRK activity.

As seen many times recently, North Korea is continuing to develop and test missiles at an alarming rate. If the money that funds DPRK’s nuclear weapons program is not arriving through legitimate means, it will be no surprise to anyone interested in North Korea that King Jong Un will look at other options to generate revenue. Even if this means breaking sanctions! Pyongyang Papers would also argue that there are no legitimate means to fund a nuclear weapons program. In October 2020 a teary Kim Jong Un conceded that the country’s economy was struggling by admitting that previous five year economic plan had failed. If only Kim Jong Un cared as much about North Korean citizens at home and abroad as he does his economic plans.

Kim Jong Un at the parade marking the 75th anniversary of the Workers' Part of Korea in October 2020
Kim Jong Un at the parade marking the 75th anniversary of the Workers’ Part of Korea in October 2020

North Korean Economy & Africa

What does this mean for North Korea? It has been reported that the DPRK would require practical means of innovation that would bring about realistic change and substantial progress to improve the North Korean economy. For the regime, it seems that innovation is the term for finding new ways to break international sanctions. Pyongyang Papers has continued to investigate methods used by North Korea to raise funds for the DPRK regime in Africa.

As mentioned previously, North Korea has a long history with many African countries. one of these countries in Guinea, who have had an established relationship with North Korea since 1958. It seems that relationship is still very productive. A source recently informed us that the Guinean minister of Security and Civil Protection and the Central Director of the Border Police issued visas to 14 workers from a DPRK construction company called South South Technology Cooperation Company, also known as Nam Nam. All 14 workers flew into Conakry, Guinea from another African country Niger.

It appears that key Guinean officials are working with the DPRK to avoid sanctions. yet while North Korea supplies construction workers to other countries, it neglects its own essential needs. For example, the original deadline for the construction and opening of the new healthcare facility Pyongyang General Hospital has passed by more than a year! North Korea closed its borders completely with the threat of COVID-19 looming in February 2020. Reports suggest this is having a major effect on medical supplies and the ability for the countries stretched healthcare system to cope with any medical outbreak. There may be some potential hope for ordinary North Korean citizen with the recent sanctions exemptions granted on medical grounds. With the hospital and other major construction projects unfinished or unopened and Kim Jong Un openly declaring economic struggles, an even harder future for North Korean citizens looks likely. Its own people are being sacrificed in what appears to be a deal to allow the regime to fund its weapons programs.

Kim Jong Un visiting the site for the new Pyongyang General Hospital
Kim Jong Un visiting the site for the new Pyongyang General Hospital

Military and the Population

Given that the DPRK is reported to spend up to 24% of its GDP on military advancement, it would suggest that the regimes priorities are very wrong. Especially when the population only get to see these funds through elaborate weapons displays. What use is a military if the economy is so decimated that there is nothing worth protecting? With a failing internal economy and the world watching how it adheres to international sanctions, it no surprise that North Korea seeks more discrete avenues to build its bank accounts. Perhaps Niger & Guinea, both members of the UN, provide a safe place for the illicit revenue generation.

Guinea and Niger

It seems that nothing has changed since our previous article about North Korean construction activity in Africa. Pyongyang papers has also discovered that a DPRK construction company Korea Chinson Cooperation Corporation are unlikely to honor a road building contract with the Niger Wazir Company to their embarrassment. Pyongyang Papers did some additional digging to find out why and it appears that the postponed arrival of North Korean workers to Niger due to COVID-19 and Kim Jung Un closing the borders may be the reason. However, there may be a way that Chinson can rescue the deal. Pyongyang papers believes that Chinson have requested that the workers recently sent to Guinea, mentioned above, be sent back to Niger so Chinson can save their reputation and future contracts. As always we will continue to investigate and see if the construction workers are sent back to Niger.

Niger and Guinea are working with the DPRK in yet another breach of international sanctions. Pyongyang may be without a working hospital facility but workers can be sent around the world to generate revenue, even during a global pandemic. The DPRK regime clearly have very different priorities to what their citizens need. As we have seen before, if North Korea continues to put weapons development above a functional medical system then Pyongyang Papers fears the ordinary citizens will never get the future they deserve.

If you have any information about DPRK sanctions evasion and illicit activity, please get in touch with Pyongyang Papers.