Japanese Police Arrest South Korean National on Suspicion of Illegal Remittance to North Korean IT Technician

Representative of Hiroshima IT Company
Two Individuals Including Former Employees
Accused of Fraudulent Unemployment Benefit Claims
Flow of Funds Confirmed to Have Reached North Korea

Japanese police have arrested two individuals, including a South Korean national, on suspicion of illicitly remitting funds to North Korean information technology (IT) technicians.

According to local reports from Kyodo News and others, Kanagawa Prefectural Police arrested Park Mo (53), a South Korean national and CEO of an IT-related company in Hiroshima Prefecture, along with a 42-year-old company employee who previously worked at the same firm, on charges of fraud for falsely claiming unemployment benefits and embezzling approximately 1.5 million yen (about 13 million KRW) on the same day.

A Japanese police official stated that during the investigation into the case of illicit remittances to North Korean IT technicians in Japan, they uncovered the suspects' fraudulent claims related to unemployment benefits and confirmed the flow of funds from these individuals to the North Korean IT technicians.

The police plan to continue their investigation on the possibility that the suspects commissioned IT work from North Korean IT technicians residing overseas and transferred payments to them. According to media reports, North Korean IT technicians who have disguised themselves as overseas workers secure contracts for tasks such as app development to earn foreign currency, and the foreign currency remitted to them is believed, according to analyses from the U.S. and others, to be used to fund North Korea's nuclear missile development and other activities.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.