North Korean animation production companies are evading sanctions and contracting anime production for Japan and overseas, it has been revealed
A misconfiguration of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) Internet cloud server has revealed that Western companies such as Amazon have been outsourcing animation production to North Korean animators, circumventing economic sanctions against the country. Animation works believed to have been produced by North Korean animators include 'Daria the Magical Tool Master,' scheduled to air in July 2024.
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It all started with the discovery of a cloud storage server on a North Korean IP address at the end of 2023. The server was not in use at the time of discovery, but a misconfiguration had made the files on the server available to anyone to view without a password.
38 North noted that it was surprising that North Korea would operate such a server, because the average IT worker in North Korea does not have direct access to the internet. Typically, North Korean organizations only have one or two computers with internet access, and workers need approval to use them and are monitored while they are using them.
The North Korean cloud server, which was accessible to anyone without a password, was discovered by Nikki Roy, who runs North Korean Internet . 38 North worked with Roy to investigate files on the cloud server from January 2024, and discovered data on animation videos that North Korea had outsourced. It seems that they were unable to identify the identity of the person who uploaded the files.
The data found on the cloud server included storyboards for anime in the making. These data included comments and instructions written in Chinese that were presumably written by the animation production company, and these were translated into Korean. Therefore, 38 North points out that 'these data may have been uploaded by an intermediary who communicates information between the animation production company and the animators.'
Below is an example of an original drawing of an anime discovered on a cloud server. The instruction to 'improve the shape of the character's head' is written.
While the identity of the North Korean partner has not been confirmed, 38 North notes that it is likely a North Korean animation studio known as 'SEK Studio,' which has participated in several international projects, including in collaboration with South Korean companies, during the
However, SEK Studio was designated a North Korean state-owned enterprise by the US Treasury Department in 2016. As a result, the US government has imposed sanctions in 2021 and 2022 on Chinese companies that cooperated with or acted as intermediaries with SEK Studio.
In addition, 38 North is working with Mandiant, a computer security company under Google, to investigate access logs of North Korean servers. The access logs of the servers contain Spanish and Chinese IP addresses, and the Chinese IP addresses are from Liaoning Province, including Dandong, Dalian, and Shenyang, which are adjacent to North Korea. All three cities, Dandong, Dalian, and Shenyang, are known for having many companies run by North Korea and are major bases for IT workers from North Korea living abroad.
Some of the animations found on North Korea's cloud servers include:
Season 3 of the Amazon original animated series ' Invincible, ' produced by California-based Skybound Entertainment . Documents stored on the server included the name of the series and 'Viltruminte Pants,' which appears to be part of the Skybound Entertainment group.
- Iyanu: Child of Wonder, an animated superhero series produced by Maryland-based YouNeek Studios and Lion Forge Entertainment and scheduled to air on HBO Max in 2024.
- ' The Magical Tool Master Darya Never Looks Down ,' a Japanese anime produced by Taifu Graphics and Imagine Infos and scheduled to air from July 2024.
- The file named 'Cat' contains the name of Ekachi Epirka, an animation production company in Hokkaido.
・A video file that appears to be from the BBC children's animation ' Octonauts .'
Other files found include Chinese animation and Russian video files, although it is unclear which animation production company is involved.
It is unclear whether the companies mentioned above knew that some of their animation work was being subcontracted to North Korean animation studios, and in fact, all of the US-based animation-related files apparently had editorial comments written in Chinese.
The US government warned in mid-2022 that companies may mistakenly hire North Korean IT workers when searching for remote contractors. It also warned that companies may be violating US and UN sanctions by hiring North Korean workers. According to the US government, North Korean workers are falsely identifying themselves as 'teleworkers based in the US' and using VPNs and other methods to disguise themselves as North Korean labor. Therefore, it is recommended that companies take safety measures such as video interviews and background checks.
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38 North said, 'The ability of North Korean animation companies to work on international projects highlights the difficulty of enforcing existing US sanctions on a global industry like animation. It also highlights the need for American animation companies to have more information about all the companies involved in their projects.'
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in Anime, , Posted by logu_ii