North Korea rejects US-allied IT worker warning

North Korea accused the United States and 10 allies of trying to damage its image after they warned companies not to employ North Korean IT workers, saying the workers use false identities to fund Pyongyang's weapons programs, state news agency KCNA reported Tuesday.

An unnamed North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesperson dismissed Friday's joint warning as “a stereotyped political accusation with a sinister purpose to tarnish the image of our state,” KCNA reported. The spokesperson said it was illogical for the United States to speak of cyber threats from other countries and called the alert an excuse for placing pressure on sovereign states.

The United States, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand and the United Kingdom issued the joint alert Friday. It said North Korean IT workers impersonate nationals of other countries to obtain online work and send income to government agencies.

The alert said the workers can threaten company data and are involved in data exfiltration, cryptocurrency theft and theft of sensitive information. It also said they use AI tools, proxies in third countries, falsified documents, VPNs, remote desktop software and cryptocurrency payment accounts to hide their identities and locations.

The alert said many workers operate from North Korea, China, Russia and southeast Asian countries while obscuring their locations. North Korea's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs are barred under UN Security Council sanctions; Pyongyang says it has a right to them and enshrined its nuclear status in its constitution in 2023.