Remote work might be the way of the future but according to the U.S. Department of Justice, that remote IT person at your company could be a North Korean national, and the money you pay him or her might go straight back to their home country, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or DPRK. 2i5l4

According to the DOJ, two North Korean nationals, two U.S. Nationals, and one man from Mexico were indicted on Jan. 23 on charges they ran a multiyear “laptop farm” in the United States, through which North Korea‘s Jin Sung-Il and Pak Jin-Song obtained remote IT work with at least 64 U.S. companies, generating nearly $900,000 in revenue for the DPRK while evading sanctions. Erick Ntekereze Prince and Emanuel Ashtor, both from the U.S., and Pedro Ernesto Alonso De Los Reyes, from Mexico, were also indicted for their role in facilitating the scam.

American laptops, DPRK workers n2g24

According to the DOJ, the five men indicted scammed American companies between 2018 and 2024. The companies provided the laptops, thinking they’d hired American workers, but in fact, the laptops resided in so-called “laptop farms,” in this case, in North Carolina. The DPRK knowingly sends workers to other countries, most often Russia or China, who then get hired as freelance IT workers and remotely access those laptops. A Chinese bank then launders the money they’re paid, directly funding the DPR and the Kim Jong Un regime, including the DPRK’s weapons of mass destruction programs.

The DOJ says fraudulent DPRK IT employees have earned up to $300,000 a year, and various “laptop farm” schemes have generated hundreds of millions for North Korea. The hiring companies all provided fake email addresses, social media s, online job site s, and more. The IT workers in this case used stolen or assumed U.S. identities to secure the work.

“The indictments announced today should highlight to all American companies the risk posed by the North Korean government,” the FBI’s Cyber Division’s Assistant Director Bryan Vorndran said, referring to the most recent case, adding, “As always, the FBI is available to assist victims of the DPRK. Please reach out to your local FBI field office should you have any questions or concerns.”

Post-COVID, the problem got worse 45g43

According to John Hultquist, head of threat intelligence at the cybersecurity firm Mandiant, the shift to remote work around the world and gig economy jobs in general have left U.S. companies particularly vulnerable to such scams. FBI special agent Jay Greenberg told the AP if your company has hired a remote IT professional, then at some point, it has “more than likely” hired a North Korean national working under an assumed identity.

“At a minimum, the FBI recommends that employers take additional proactive steps with remote IT workers to make it harder for bad actors to hide their identities,” Greenberg said. Cybersecurity expert Hultquist added, “I think the post-COVID world has created a lot more opportunity for them because freelancing and remote hiring are a far more natural part of the business than they were in the past.”

Born on Jan. 8, either in 1982, 1983, or 1984 (bizarrely, nobody truly knows), in Pyongyang, North Korea, Kim Jong-un is a 41, 42, or 43-year-old politician and dictator.

The third son of Kim Jong Il (the second Supreme Leader of North Korea) and one of the many grandchildren of Kim Il Sung (the founder and first Supreme Leader of the country), he has been the third Supreme Leader of North Korea since December 2011 (following his father’s death) and general secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) since 2012. His many additional titles include Marshal and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, Chairman of the State of Affairs Commission, and overall commander-in-chief.

The man referred to in North Korean media as “Dear Leader” is famously private — to the point that his daughter, Kim Ju-ae, who was born in 2012 or 2013, wasn’t seen in public until 2022. Still, he’s been front and center of many controversial news stories because of his obsession with missiles and the alleged crimes committed by his nation, believed to include torture, abductions, imprisonment in specially-built camps, and more, reportedly through his instruction and under his leadership. He’s also sent poop-filled balloons across the border to South Korea. Yes, really.

However, Kim’s most ruthless act is systematically executing of former high-ranking North Korean figure Jang Song-taek’s family, as he perceives them to be a threat to his power. It’s alleged that he plans to eradicate all traces of Jang’s family and anyone with a history of ing them.

Despite the occasional insulting back and forth between the misfit pair (Trump called Kim “Little Rocket Man” in 2017, per Politico), Kim has enjoyed something of a “bromance” with United States president-elect Donald Trump (they’re both horrible after all). Per The Guardian, they wrote each other letters during Trump’s first presidency, with the orange one saying, “He wrote me beautiful letters and we fell in love,” and, per CNN, Trump recently claimed North Korea’s leader had missed him while he’d been away.

Trump has a net worth of around $8 billion, according to Celebrity Net Worth, but how does that compare to his North Korean pen pal?

What is Kim Jong-un’s net worth? 2s5n1f

Celebrity Net Worth shows Kim Jong-un’s net worth is $5 billion, making him $1 billion wealthier than his father. However, given how egotistical he is, we bet the fact Trump has a higher net worth than him grates on him tremendously.

Propaganda around Supreme Leaders is rife in North Korea. Per CBS, Kim Jong-un’s father, Kim Jong Il, is said to have had a divine birth, learned to walk at the age of three weeks, learned to talk by the age of eight weeks, wrote 1,500 books and six operas in his three years at university, shot an unprecedented (and frankly impossible) 38-under par round on North Korea’s only golf course the first time he picked up a golf club (including 11 holes-in-one), and has no need to defecate. With all that in mind, it is bordering on miraculous that Kim Jong-un hasn’t convinced the planet he’s the wealthiest man on it.

North Korea, led by the chubby demigod-pretend with a bad haircut, has once again managed to grab headlines for all the wrong reasons.

Whether it’s threatening global stability with nuclear tests or broadcasting state TV specials that showcase Kim’s apparent supernatural ability to control the weather, North Korea never fails to astonish the world with its flair for the theatrical. However, this latest incident marks a new low for the attention-craving kingdom.

Through air raids, it has begun sending balloons filled with actual feces across the border into South Korea. Yes, you read that right – flying poop. South Korean authorities have warned residents to steer clear of these stinky missiles, lest they find themselves covered in the stench of Dear Leader’s displeasure.

Beyond the unmistakable poop payloads, the balloons are reportedly filled with used batteries, dismembered shoe parts, bottles, wastepaper, and more. The aerial litter has affected eight out of nine provinces, with the government warning South Korean citizens to avoid with the debris due to health hazards.

But why resort to such a disgusting tactic? 676g55

It turns out this fecal fiasco is actually retaliation for a stunt pulled by South Korean activists earlier this month. These balloons were filled with something far more dangerous to the North Korean dictator’s delicate sensibilities: leaflets criticizing his regime and pen drives loaded with the ultimate weapon of mass rebellion– K-pop. Kim Jong-un’s regime has famously gone to extreme lengths to insulate its population from foreign influences, particularly from the South.  

Technically, the two Koreas are still at war, and the balloon battles are just one of the many strange ways this conflict continues to play out. In 2016, DPRK sent over balloons carrying cigarette butts and other trash, apparently in retaliation for South Korea’s decision to blast K-pop songs across the border via loudspeaker. In 2020, reports surfaced that North Korea introduced a sweeping new law against what it calls “reactionary thought.” Under this law, anyone caught with South Korean entertainment could face severe penalties, including lengthy prison or even the death penalty.

Indeed, Kim is so insecure that he can’t handle the idea of his citizens getting a glimpse of the outside world. But sooner or later, the truth will come out, and when it does, all the poop-flinging in the world won’t be enough to save Kim. The people of North Korea deserve better than a leader who would rather engage in petty fights than provide them with basic freedoms and opportunities.

Marjorie Taylor Greene just keeps one-upping herself.

It seems there’s no topic on the planet that’s off-limits to the human embodiment of menstrual cramps — even those she’s embarrassingly uninformed on. Like North Korea, which she recently brought up in an interview that quickly saw her blasted as “deranged,” and her claim classified the “DUMBEST statement from an elected official” the internet’s heard in awhile.

See, it seems Marj is under the impression that Trump, in all his unhinged glory, somehow used his broad shoulders and oversized suits to force Kim Jong Un, the Supreme Leader of North Korea, to step down. Something that absolutely has not happened, and never came close to happening.

In reality, former President Trump meandered over to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea back in 2019 for a photo op. The visit accomplished exactly nothing — other than the de-escalation of an online feud Trump started. Sure, Kim Jong Un prompted it with those missile tests, but the first shots fired online definitely came from our own former president.

Dubbing the North Korean leader “Little Rocket Man,” Trump continued to dig in his heels for months, before finally meeting with Kim Jong Un in first 2018, and then 2019. It is the 2019 meeting that Greene referenced in her latest embarrassing public statement, when she claimed Trump “gave shock and awe to the whole world” when he entered North Korea, “hand extended, shaking hands with Kim Jong Un, ending Little Rocket Man’s reign.”

Someone should really step up and give good ol’ Marj a quick lesson in global politics — or at least in how to read a newspaper — but honestly, who’s going to volunteer for that monumental task? Instead, we can sit pretty with the extremely accessible, widespread knowledge that Kim Jong Un is still the Supreme Leader of North Korea, just as he’s been since 2011.

Greene, meanwhile, will continue to spread misinformation like its COVID-19, without a care for actual fact-checking or accuracy. The internet will continue to blast her for the brainless dolt she is, and — even as she somehow hangs onto ers — I’ll enjoy the unique pleasure of reporting on the third dumbest politician in the United States.

In an unprecedented move, the media of North Korea was permitted to publish photos of Kim Jong Un’s daughter. What has heads spinning is what it means for the dictator, and who just might be stepping up to take his place when he takes leave of his office.

Kim has kept his life very private and learning details about it have taken investigative work on the level of Sherlock Holmes himself. In 2012, The Korea Herald broke the story that the “mysterious” woman flanking Kim at a ceremony had been identified as his wife, Ri Sol Ju. After that, it took the likes of Dennis Rodman to visit North Korea and sit on the beach with Kim for the world to learn that he has one daughter, Ju Ae, according to The Guardian. Experts are still wondering if she’s the daughter in the photos since the North Korean leader has three kids that were born in 2010, 2013, and 2017.

Leif-Eric Easley is a professor at Ewha University in Seoul who told AP, “It’s much too soon to infer anything about succession within the Kim regime. However, publicly including his wife and daughter in what Kim claims as a historically successful missile test associates the family business of ruling North Korea with the nation’s missile programs.”

While it’s largely speculated that Kim’s move might be to start the process of introducing his heir to the world, some think he might just be attempting to appear more of a family-oriented leader. Nothing says North Korea better than a missile flying overhead as the photographer shoots these special family moments.