Inside North Korea’s Hacker Army

In most respects, Jong Hyok looks like any other middle-aged male tech worker you might see on the skyscraper-shadowed streets of Seoul’s Gangnam district: smartphone in hand, dark-blue winter coat over a casual, open-collared work shirt. Sit him down at a sushi restaurant and start asking him questions, though, and you soon sense that Jong is harboring an extraordinary tale. He slouches, staring intently at the table before him and speaking haltingly, his sentences often trailing away unfinished.

Jong tells you he’s in his late 30s, but his tired eyes and wizened skin make him look a decade older. He says he’s concerned that you’ll be indiscreet with details that could expose him or his family. You wonder momentarily if he suspects you’re a North Korean spy. But no, you’re here to relate the remarkable story of his years spent cracking computer networks and programs to raise money for the regime in Pyongyang.