Comment by staplung
6 hours ago
The numbers in the headline seem odd. They imply that each (fake|fraudulent) worker only nets $5000 per year for Kim. I know the system has some inefficiencies where people behind the scenes are helping the "employee" with the work and there are cost of living expenses, taxes etc. but that seems like a pretty low take.
This might include people working in lumber camps in places like Siberia, "mercenaries" in Ukraine, people in NK-managed restaurants in China, Laos etc, or similar efforts that have been reported on, where the average revenue per worker is likely a lot lower.
Maybe some of them don't remain employed for very long.
I had the same thought - I guess there's additional overhead in paying the in-country proxy and probably also a lot of churn (being found out and fired, and then taking a long time to find another position).
5k a year could be 2 weeks of onboarding or waiting out a bureaucratic PIP process.
Its also possible that its a numbers game and only 2/3 succeed at getting hired.
It would be ironic if the DPRK just passes on more of the money than most contract software companies.