North Korea employs gold farmers to fund the government

Five hackers in North Korea have been charged with creating bot farms in several MMOs, then selling the in-game gains for real-world cash on several well-known sites. Afterward, most of the proceeds were sent to the Korean government.

According to police in Seoul, South Korea, the charged hackers are accused of organizing a 30-person group to hack MMOs like Lineage and Dungeon Fighter Online in order to allow illegal 24-hour bot farming operations. In roughly two years, the group managed to raise about $6 million, 55 percent which was funneled into the government's pockets.

The New York Times reports that the accused parties were stationed in two places: the state-run Korea Computer Center in Pyongyang and the Korea Neungnado General Trading Company. The latter is said to report to a Communist Party agency named Office 39, which gathers money for Kim Jong-il through illegal activities.

All five of the arrested hackers graduated from North Korean "elite science universities" and were required to send the equivalent of $500 per month to the government. It was unclear how much extra went to personal bank accounts, but with 30 people running bot farms every day, it's probably no small amount.