For years, North Koreans have secretly taken remote jobs at hundreds of Western companies. They use fake resumes and sometimes have American collaborators. This is a major problem because severe sanctions prohibit hiring North Koreans due to the regime’s nuclear weapons program.
A known strategy to expose these impostors is to ask them to insult dictator Kim Jong Un during an interview, which is illegal and punishable in North Korea. A recent viral video shows this in action. An interviewer asks an applicant to call Kim Jong Un “a fat ugly pig.” The applicant becomes visibly uncomfortable, pretends not to understand, and then leaves the call.
This trick is not foolproof. Some North Korean operatives living abroad face less strict supervision and may not be deterred by this tactic alone.