North Korean IT workers sent US pay home for weapons program, says FBI

Authorities say thousands of people dispatched by North Korea to work for US companies fed millions of dollars to missile program

Thousands of information technology workers contracting with US companies have for years secretly sent millions of dollars of their wages to North Korea for use in its ballistic missile program, FBI and Department of Justice officials said.

The justice department said Wednesday that IT workers dispatched and contracted by North Korea to work remotely with companies in St Louis and elsewhere in the US have been using false identities to get the jobs. The money they earned was funneled to the North Korean weapons program, FBI leaders said at a news conference in St Louis.