The FBI is investigating how a North Korean national was hired to work as an IT staffer for a US federal government agency, in what is thought to be a rare confirmed case of a sanctioned North Korean gaining employment within government. The disclosure, first reported by Federal News Network, highlights how North Korea's long-running scheme of using fraudulent identities to secure remote IT jobs and funnel wages back to the regime may have breached the stringent vetting normally applied to government roles, rather than being confined to private companies as previously seen.

Details remain scarce: the FBI has not identified the affected agency, said how the individual was hired, or confirmed whether any data or funds were compromised, and it did not respond to a request for comment. The news follows a 2024 Justice Department case in which a Maryland man helped a North Korean hacker pose as an American to obtain a remote contractor role with the Federal Aviation Administration. Thousands of North Korean IT workers are believed to have infiltrated US and European organisations by exploiting hiring loopholes, with Pyongyang-linked hackers reportedly responsible for 76% of cryptocurrency thefts in 2025, netting at least $2 billion to help fund the regime's sanctioned nuclear programme.