David Brunnstrom
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – North Korean animators may have helped create popular television cartoons for major Western firms including Amazon (NASDAQ:) and HBO Max despite international sanctions on North Korea, a research report says.
Researchers found files on a North Korean Internet server that included animation, written instructions and commentary that appeared to refer to projects being developed for foreign studios, the Washington-based 38 North project said in a report released Monday.
Those projects included “Invincible,” an Amazon Original animated series produced by California-based Skybound Entertainment, and “Iyanu, the Miracle Child,” a superhero anime produced by Maryland-based YouNeek Studios and airing later this year on HBO Max. .
US sanctions prohibit almost all commercial activity between US citizens and North Korean entities.
Michael Barnhart, who works on North Korea issues at Mandiant, a computer security company owned by Google (NASDAQ:), and worked with 38 North on the project, said there was nothing to indicate that Western companies knew about the agreements that , apparently, were known. attract subcontractors to China.
“No one could have known about this if it had not been for the operational security error that exposed it,” he said.
Amazon representatives declined to comment and referred Reuters to Skybound Entertainment.
Skybound said it was not aware of any North Korean companies working on its animations, but took the allegations seriously and initiated a thorough internal review to review and address any potential problems.
“We have also notified the relevant authorities and are cooperating with all relevant authorities,” said head of corporate communications Hannah Cosgrove.
HBO Max and YouNeek did not respond to requests for comment.
The report states that after the files were discovered, two researchers monitored the server and observed traffic throughout January.
“Every day, a new batch of files appeared containing instructions for working with animation and the results of the work for that day,” the report says.
“Often, the files contained comments and editing instructions in Chinese, presumably written by the production company, as well as translations of these instructions into Korean,” the report said.
“This suggests that an intermediary was responsible for passing information between the production companies and the animators.”
The identity of the person or persons who downloaded the files could not be determined, nor could the identity of the North Korean organization involved, the report said.
WESTERN CARTOON PROJECTS
North Korea’s leading animation house is Pyongyang-based animation studio April 26, also known as SEK Studio, which has worked on international projects in the past. In 2016, the US Treasury Department designated it as a North Korean state-owned enterprise and placed it under sanctions.
The report notes that in 2021 and 2022, the US government also imposed sanctions on Chinese companies that worked with the studio or acted as intermediaries.
38 North said the files found on the server related to a number of projects, including the third season of Invincible. The message states that the document on the server contains the name of the series and “Viltruminte Pants LLC”, part of the Skybound group.
Working with Mandiant, the researchers examined server access logs that included three Internet addresses in China.
Two of the latest were registered in China’s Liaoning province, which borders North Korea and is home to many North Korean businesses and North Korean IT workers.
Mandiant’s Barnhart told Reuters he had a “high degree of confidence” that the animation contracts were awarded to North Korea by a front company apparently in China.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington said Beijing strictly adheres to UN bans on dealings with North Korea, but added that sanctions are not the solution to North Korea. North Korea’s UN mission did not respond to requests for comment.
BETTER PAY IN CHINA
Choi Seong Guk, a North Korean defector web cartoonist who worked at SEK Studio from 1996 to 2002, told Reuters that the studio has a dedicated team to work with foreign studios.
Choi, who left the state-run studio due to low wages, said some fellow North Korean cartoonists also went to work abroad, mostly to China, where on paper they were construction workers but in reality created animation for Chinese clients.
“Doing it in China, they get paid $100 a month… compared to $1 at home,” he said.
In 2022, the U.S. Departments of State and Treasury and the Federal Bureau of Investigation issued an advisory warning to businesses about the risk of inadvertently hiring North Korean IT workers and said doing so could lead to violations of U.S. and U.N. sanctions.
A U.S. Treasury spokesman said it does not comment on “potential investigations or sanctions violations as a general practice,” but North Korea’s efforts to generate revenue for its weapons programs through cybercrime and abuse of contractors are concerning.