Report - North Korea Hiring Hackers to Farm Gold to Fund the Government

Believe it or not, according to the report of New York Times, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has found a hacker group comprise of graduates of North Korea's elite science universities, to farm gold to raise money for the government.

It may sound ridiculous to you, but according to the report, the South Korean police has sort of evidence and many details of its neighbour's activities. Last week, the police in Seoul said that they had arrested 4 South Koreans and a Korean-Chinese who tried to organize a hacking squad of 30 young video game hackers. What's more, South Korean police believed that the hacker squad was working in Northern China and created some softwares that can "breached the servers for such popular South Korean online gaming sites as 'Lineage' and 'Dungeon and Fighter'" and "allowed round-the-clock play by 'factories' of dozens of unmanned computers."

Hackers are making money to supply North Korea's nuclear weapons programs?

The gaming points and virtual currency were then exchanged to real money through illegal gold trading websites. Even the softwares the hackers used were sold for money. What's more astonishing is that the organization has made $6 million in the past 2 years. A large part of the income has been forwarded to North Korean, said South Korean police.

The gold farming activities were related to North Korean's nuclear weapons programs, which was reported to be in urgent need of funds, as NY Times said that "South Korean and American officials say they believe the slush fund is worth billions, and that Mr. Kim uses it to help finance his nuclear weapons programs and to smuggle Rolex watches and other luxury goods, which he doles out to buy the allegiance of the party and the military elite. Meanwhile, the bulk of his people suffer privation and myriad hardships."

Of course North Korea won't admit it and it's up to you to trust the report or just take it as a story.

Source: New York Times