Tokyo police sent papers on two Japanese men to public prosecutors Monday on suspicion of helping an apparent information technology worker from North Korea pose as a Japanese citizen.
The Public Security Bureau of Tokyo's Metropolitan Police Department believes that the IT worker was involved in North Korea's efforts to obtain foreign currency.
The two Japanese men — a 32-year-old corporate worker in the city of Oita and a 34-year-old sole proprietor in Tokyo's Kita Ward — are suspected of helping the IT worker create an account for a job-matching service by sending driver's license photos and other information to the IT worker in September and October 2020.
Remuneration for tasks undertaken by the IT worker posing as the two Japanese men was paid into the two men's bank accounts but was later transferred abroad at the instruction of the worker, according to police sources.
The IT worker communicated with the two Japanese men through social media, the sources said. Data from the job-matching service provider's website suggests access from North Korea, they said.
The National Police Agency is warning private companies and organizations that North Korean IT workers are pretending to be Japanese by using fake identification cards to win orders for work such as webpage production.
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