In order to support international efforts to disrupt North Korea’s illicit activities, the State Department’s Rewards for Justice (RFJ) program offers rewards of up to $5 million for information that leads to the disruption of financial mechanisms of persons engaged in certain activities that support North Korea, including money laundering, sanctions evasion, cyber-crime, and WMD proliferation.
The Department is seeking information about, among other things:
• Ship-to-ship transfers of coal originating in North Korea or crude oil or petroleum products being shipped to North Korea, or any other cargo to or from North Korean vessels;
• North Korean citizens working outside of North Korea and generating significant revenue for the Government of North Korea or the Workers Party of Korea;
• Businesses or individuals located anywhere in the world that are involved in prohibited North Korean trade;
• North Korean weapons sales or shipments;
• Luxury goods shipped to North Korea.
The RFJ program is also offering a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the identification or location of persons who, working at the direction of the North Korean government, access a computer to steal information, damage the computer, commit extortion, or aid or abet those who commit those crimes.
The Department is specifically authorized to offer rewards of up to $5 million for information leading to the disruption of financial mechanisms of any person or entity who has engaged in conduct described in Sections 104(a) and 104(b)(1) of the North Korea Sanctions and Policy Enhancement Act of 2016. This includes information on any person or entity who knowingly:
1. Imports, exports, or re-exports to, into, or from North Korea any goods, services, or technology controlled for export by the United States because of the use of such goods, services, or technology for weapons of mass destruction or delivery systems for such weapons and materially contributes to the use, development, production, possession, or acquisition by any person of a nuclear, radiological, chemical, or biological weapon or any device or system designed in whole or in part to deliver such a weapon;
2. Provides training, advice, or other services or assistance, or engages in significant financial transactions, relating to the manufacture, maintenance, or use of any such weapon, device, or system to be imported, exported, or re-exported to, into, or from North Korea;
3. Imports, exports, or re-exports luxury goods to or into North Korea;
4. Engages in, is responsible for, or facilitates censorship by the Government of North Korea;
5. Engages in, is responsible for, or facilitates serious human rights abuses by the Government of North Korea;
6. Engages in money laundering, the counterfeiting of goods or currency, bulk cash smuggling, or narcotics trafficking that supports the Government of North Korea or any senior official or person acting for or on behalf of that Government;
7. Engages in significant activities undermining cybersecurity through the use of computer networks or systems against foreign persons, governments, or other entities on behalf of the Government of North Korea;
8. Sells, supplies, or transfers to or from the Government of North Korea or any person acting for or on behalf of that Government, a significant amount of precious metal, graphite, raw or semi-finished metals or aluminum, steel, coal, or software, for use by or in industrial processes directly related to weapons of mass destruction and delivery systems for such weapons, other proliferation activities, the Korean Workers’ Party, armed forces, internal security, or intelligence activities, or the operation and maintenance of political prison camps or forced labor camps, including outside of North Korea;
9. Imports, exports, or re-exports to, into, or from North Korea any arms or related materiel; or
10. Knowingly attempts to engage in any of the conduct described in paragraphs (1) through (9).
The Department is also authorized to offer rewards of up to $5 million for information leading to the identification of any individual who, at the direction of or under control of the North Korean government, aids or abets a violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (“CFAA”), 18 U.S.C. § 1030). The Department is seeking information on any such activities that violate the CFAA, with a particular, but not exclusive, interest in those activities involving:
1. The unauthorized intrusions into public and private sector computers and networks with the intent to steal information;
2. The sending of destructive malware;
3. The dissemination and use of ransomware;
4. The sending of threats to cause damage to, obtain information from, or requesting something in value in relation to a computer, with the intent to extort from a person or entity money or anything of value as prohibited by 18 U.S.C. §§ 1030(a)(2), (a)(3), (a)(5), and (a)(7).
