In recent years, North Koreans have obtained remote jobs at hundreds of Western companies by pretending to be from other countries, using fake resumes and sometimes with the help of American collaborators.
This has long been a major problem, as North Korea remains under severe sanctions from the United States and European governments over the regime's banned nuclear weapons program, and businesses are not allowed to employ North Koreans.
As time went on, someone realized that there might be a way to expose someone who might be North Korean during the interview process. Ask the suspected fraudster to insult the country's dictator, Kim Jong-un. Insulting Kim Jong-un is illegal in the country and can result in severe penalties. Although this is a well-known strategy, we rarely see real-world examples of it working in real time.
That's exactly what happened in this viral video on X. The video shows a job interview during a video call, in which a recruiter asks job applicants to say, “Kim Jong Un is a fat, ugly pig.”
This video shows a North Korean IT worker dying after being stopped mid-way after being asked to insult Kim Jong-un.
It won't work forever, but it's a really effective filter for now. I have yet to meet anyone who can say that. https://t.co/8FFVPxNm8X pic.twitter.com/KXI5efMo5L
— Tanuki42 (@tanuki42_) April 6, 2026
This request appears to confuse the job applicant, who becomes visibly uncomfortable, pretends not to understand the question, and simply exits the interview.
It's important to note that this trick doesn't always work. These tactics are not necessarily effective strategies in and of themselves, as some North Korean fake IT workers, particularly those living in China and Russia, are not always under as strict a surveillance as hackers within North Korea's borders.