Nations take action on North Korean IT workers after UN report

Multiple countries have taken legal action against North Koreans or local handlers following a report from the United Nations about Pyongyang’s illicit IT worker scheme. 

The Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT) — a U.S.-led international committee tasked with tracking compliance of UN sanctions on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) — released a new report on Wednesday spotlighting the thousands of North Korean nationals who work outside of the country in various industries. 

The study is an expansion of a 140-page report released last October by the UN that focused specifically on the IT worker scheme — where North Korean nationals steal or purchase IDs to get hired in high-paying IT roles typically at companies. The UN said teams of the IT workers live illegally in China as well as about 40 other countries.

In January, U.S. officials said Argentina took several actions in response to the report and Pakistan detained someone for facilitating North Korean IT worker activities.

Wednesday’s report said that as of July, Vietnam, Laos, Pakistan and Argentina took meaningful steps to respond to the allegations listed in the October study. 

Argentina’s government opened an investigation into a woman named Antonia Doroganova who allegedly helped launder funds earned by North Korean IT workers through various payment accounts. Argentina also froze some assets and took other measures related to Doroganova’s actions. 

In Pakistan, a legal case was opened against Syeda Aliya Batool Zaidi — an alleged forger who provided North Korean IT workers with fraudulent identification documents. The Pakistani Federal Investigation Agency launched investigations into Zaidi and two other people, Syed Sohail Mehdi and Syed Kazim, who are accused of helping North Koreans conduct IT work in the country. 

Wednesday’s study noted that multiple companies and people in Vietnam and Laos were sanctioned by the U.S. in March after being previously identified by UN investigators. The companies and their officials helped North Koreans open local bank accounts, launder their earnings and more. 

In July, the government of Laos responded to an MSMT inquiry and confirmed that 19 of the North Koreans identified in the October report entered the country between 2018 and 2019 and all left by 2025. 

Laos’ government denied the existence of several companies listed by the MSMT. 

North Koreans outside of the country generated up to $800 million from their work last year, with much of it coming from the IT worker scheme

Chinese dissension

Wednesday’s report noted that there have been recent issues with North Korean IT workers in China due to several incidents that alarmed Chinese officials. 

The MSMT said IT workers are facing “stricter and increased surveillance by Chinese authorities” while several reports emerged of IT workers being arrested for allegedly engaging in espionage. 

“In particular, in April 2025, a North Korean IT worker dispatched to China was reportedly arrested and detained by Chinese public security authorities for allegedly stealing Chinese military secrets,” MSMT investigators said. 

“Moreover, stricter and increased surveillance has restricted DPRK’s ability to deploy new batches of IT workers. As of July 2025, North Korean IT workers have had trouble entering China.” 

Due to the recent issues, a North Korean company was forced to lease a building in the North Korean border city of Sinuiju — allowing IT workers to use Chinese internet and earn foreign currency without entering China. 

An MSMT member also reported that a North Korean IT company tried to secure residency permits from China’s Foreign Affairs Ministry by disguising IT workers as employees of a trading company while other firms have tried to sneak North Koreans into China by portraying them as garment laborers. 

North Korean IT workers had similar issues in Laos, where they were subjected to surveillance by Laotian officials, according to the MSMT. 

North Korea had to move the IT workers out of the capital Vientiane to a provincial city called Vang Vieng due to the surveillance. Laos told the MSMT that it has created a national committee to investigate the IT worker scheme and implement UN rules. 

Global reach

Multiple UN resolutions ordered all North Korean nationals to be sent back to the country by 2019 and banned North Koreans from earning income in UN member states. 

The MSMT said at least 17 countries have continued to host about 100,000 North Koreans, with the vast majority located in China and Russia. Wednesday’s report expands on the October study and tracks all of the different sectors North Koreans are working in. 

An estimated 20,000 to 70,000 North Korean workers are deployed in China and up to 30,000 are in Russia — working in manufacturing, farming and military industrial production. Up to 90% of their earnings are confiscated by North Korean officials, according to the report.  

In addition to Russia and China, the MSMT said it found North Korean laborers in Cambodia, Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

North Korea relies on a web of both local facilitators and their own government officials to manage the workers, translate for them and send earned money back to Pyongyang. 

Lara Strangways, spokesperson for Global Rights Compliance, said the report highlighted the lengths North Korea’s government is willing to go for hard currency. The organization provided North Korean workers’ testimonies to the MSMT.  

“This is a problem which must be urgently confronted as the scale and breadth of state-sponsored forced labor expands due to the DPRK's intensifying need for foreign currency,” she said. “The labor brokers facilitating these arrangements, and the companies profiting from this exploitation, must be identified and sanctioned."