North Korean Information Technology (IT) Workers

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Rewards for Justice is offering a reward of up to $5 million for information that leads to the disruption of financial mechanisms of persons engaged in certain activities that support North Korea (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, DPRK), including money laundering, exportation of luxury goods to North Korea, specified cyber-activity and actions that support weapons of mass destruction (WMD) proliferation. Such activities include work by highly skilled North Korean nationals sent abroad whose income generates funds for the DPRK regime.

The Department is seeking information on North Korean information technology (IT) workers using aliases Jiho Han, Chunji Jin, and Haoran Xu, and their manager Zhonghua. These individuals engaged in a scheme that enabled Han, Jin, and Xu to obtain illicit telework employment with U.S. companies using false identities belonging to more than 60 real U.S. persons. The illicit scheme generated at least $6.8 million for the DPRK.

From about October 2020 until October 2023, U.S. national Christina Chapman helped Han, Jin, and Xu obtain work as remote software and applications developers with companies in a range of sectors and industries. They also attempted — but failed — to gain similar employment at two U.S. government agencies.

These IT workers are linked to the DPRK’s Munitions Industry Department, which oversees the development of the DPRK’s ballistic missiles, weapons production, and research and development programs.

Chapman assisted the North Korean IT workers in acquiring valid identities of real U.S. citizens. She also received and hosted laptop computers issued to the IT workers by U.S. employers to make it appear that the overseas workers were located in the United States and assisted the workers in connecting remotely to the U.S. companies’ IT networks on a daily basis. She also helped launder the proceeds from the scheme by receiving, processing, and distributing paychecks from the U.S. firms to these IT workers and others.

We encourage anyone with information on Jiho Han, Haoran Xu, Chunji Jin, Zhonghua, associated individuals or entities, or their revenue-generating and money laundering activities to contact the Rewards for Justice office via its Tor-based tips-reporting channel at: he5dybnt7sr6cm32xt77pazmtm65flqy6irivtflruqfc5ep7eiodiad.onion (Tor browser required).