SEOUL, A North Korean entity under its Workers’ Party has made thousands of illegal online gambling websites and sold them to a South Korean cyber crime ring for hefty profits, the spy agency here said Wednesday.
Gyonghung Information Technology Co., a 15-member group based in Dandong, a Chinese border town neighboring the North’s Sinuiju, has allegedly received US$5,000 from the unidentified South Korean criminal organization for creating a single website and $3,000 per month for maintaining the website, according to the National Intelligence Service (NIS).
It was also suspected of receiving an additional $2,000 to $5,000 if the website gathers a lot of users through bank accounts held by Chinese nationals and global online payment service PayPal.
The entity was believed to be under the so-called Bureau 39 of the North Korean party in charge of raising and managing leader Kim Jong-un’s secret funds, the NIS said, adding that each member of the organization sent around $500 to the North Korean government
every month.
The organization was led by Kim Kwang-myong, who is originally an official of the North’s Reconnaissance General Bureau, Pyongyang’s primary intelligence bureau.
The North Korean organization also extorted personal information of users who accessed the websites it created by planting malicious codes on the websites, according to the agency.
It was not immediately known how much the entity has earned from the South Korean criminal group.
The South Korean criminal organization was also found to have raised multi trillion won in profit by using the websites, and an investigation is under way into the criminal ring, the NIS said.
The NIS acquired photos and video footage related to the North Korean organization’s activities, and the materials showed the names and identities of its members and their fake identities as Chinese nationals.
“Dandong emerged as a base for apparel production in China based on the manpower from North Korea, and North Korean IT organizations created to raise dollars ble
nd in among the North Korean workers in the area to illegally earn foreign currencies,” the NIS said.
The NIS said there are thousands of North Koreans that earn money overseas using similar methods.
Currently, North Korean nationals cannot work in China, as the United Nations Security Council imposed sanctions against Pyongyang in 2017 to prevent the North from earning money to develop nuclear weapons and missiles.
Source: Yonhap News Agency
