The North Korean Operatives Hiding Inside U.S. Companies | WSJ Documentary

- We get like a lot of imposter candidates, particularly North Koreans, like posing as people that they're not.

So one of the tests that we do is trying to get them to say Kim Jong-Un is a fat ugly pig. Could you say that for me?

- No, Kim Jong-Un. You know, the leader of North Korea. Can you say it?

- Good afternoon, Michael. How are you today? - Hi. Nice to meet you. Hello. - Hi. - Hi. Nice to meet you.

- And would you now or in the future require a sponsorship? - I am a US citizen. - You tell people North Koreans are working for American companies, and then the first question is, how's that possible?

- From our perspective, it likely is thousands of IT workers who are looking for jobs in the United States.

We're talking about millions and millions of dollars going towards North Korea. - I see them in governments, I see them in defense contractors, I see them at banking institutions.

These IT workers are everywhere. - Have you seen the jobs that I've supposedly worked and how much of the money they have made?

But yet here I am. Whole life is just took. - They would schedule up interviews and all I had to do was just show up, and then you get one of those remote laptops sent to you.

There's no way I'm the only guy doing this.

- Over the last several years, a crop of seemingly perfect job applicants has flooded American companies, but they aren't who they claim to be.

They're undercover North Korean operatives. Dispatched by their government, they use stolen identities and fabricated resumes to blast out applications to US-based companies with the goal of getting hired.