Amazon has announced that it has blocked over 1,800 applications from North Koreans seeking remote IT jobs, especially in the United States.

Stephen Schmidt, head of Amazon security, stated that these applications have increased by almost a third in the last year, and behind them are "laptop farms" controlled from North Korea. The problem is not limited to Amazon, but affects the entire IT sector. To identify fraudulent applications, the company looks for anomalies such as incorrect phone numbers and fake diplomas. In the past, North Koreans have been involved in schemes that allow them to obtain jobs in American and British companies, generating significant sums of money that contribute to funding North Korea's weapons program. UN sanctions prohibit North Korean workers from earning money abroad, but they continue to hide their nationality to obtain contracts with international companies.