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North Korea has sent approximately 100 IT specialists to the Chinese border city of Dandong, marking the first such deployment since before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report by the Seoul-based Daily NK. The outlet described the move as “a significant shift in the regime’s overseas money-making operations as relations with Beijing warm.”
According to the report, a group of young men aged 20 to 30 arrived in Dandong from Sinuiju, North Pyongan Province, in late August. The workers underwent months of pre-deployment training in Pyongyang and departed as soon as the order was issued. Daily NK suggested that North Korean authorities had been waiting for the right moment to send them to China, noting that the operation was likely planned well in advance. The deployment occurred before Kim Jong Un’s visit to Beijing for China’s Sept. 3 Victory Day celebrations.
Typically, before the pandemic, North Korean IT specialists would enter China in groups of about 10 and set up bases in places like Shenyang, Liaoning Province, or Jilin Province. Despite its proximity to North Korea, Dandong was generally avoided.
The report said the dispatched IT specialists have been divided into about 10 teams of 15 people each and will rent apartments and other accommodations in Dandong. They are expected to live together and earn foreign currency by developing software applications, managing websites, and engaging in other IT-related work. According to the source, they are also likely to be involved in illegal activities such as hacking and cryptocurrency theft in an effort to secure much-needed hard currency for the Kim regime.
Daily NK reported that North Korea’s broader overseas labor deployments have accelerated following Kim Jong Un’s early September meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Between October 10 and 12, North Korea reportedly sent groups of 40 to 50 new workers to seafood processing plants in Dandong and Donggang, both in Liaoning Province.
“North Korea’s labor dispatches were intermittent for a while, but recently the authorities have begun sending workers in earnest again,” the source told Daily NK. “The number of workers dispatched to clothing or seafood processing plants has noticeably increased.”
An earlier report by the analytical group Elliptic revealed that North Korean hackers have stolen more than $2 billion in cryptocurrency so far in 2025 — three times more than in all of 2024. As noted by the BBC, the thefts are a record for hackers linked to the regime. The sum is equal to around 13% of North Korea’s gross domestic product, according to UN estimates.
Founded in 2004, Daily NK is an independent Seoul-based online news outlet that specializes in reporting on North Korea.