Overview

• The Treasury Department blacklisted Song Kum Hyok and four entities, including the Russia-based Asatryan IT Worker Network, and imposed US asset freezes on their accounts.
• Song Kum Hyok is accused of recruiting thousands of North Korean IT workers in China and Russia who posed as Americans to funnel paychecks into the regime’s WMD and ballistic missile programs.
• OFAC sanctions also named facilitator Gayk Asatryan for arranging false-identity employment contracts that moved millions to Pyongyang.
• The State Department’s Rewards for Justice program is offering up to $10 million for information on DPRK cyber actors and $5 million for tips that disrupt their financial mechanisms.
• US officials describe these actions as the latest step in a coordinated strategy to choke off cyber-enabled revenue sources funding North Korea’s weapons development.