Thousands of distant IT workers remitted pay to North Korea to assist fund weapons program, according to the FBI

FBI and Department of Justice officials say thousands of U.S. IT workers have secretly contributed millions of dollars to North Korea for its ballistic missile program for years.

The Justice Department said Wednesday that North Korean IT professionals hired to work remotely with St. Louis and other U.S. corporations had used fraudulent identities to secure the employment. FBI leaders told a St. Louis press conference that their earnings funded North Korea's nuclear program.

As part of the ongoing investigation, federal agents seized $1.5 million and 17 domain names.

Rebecca Wu, spokesman, said thousands of North Korean IT workers are involved.

FBI authorities said the plan is so widespread that firms must be extra cautious when hiring, including conducting video interviews.

Officials did not name the companies that unwittingly employed North Korean staff, when the practice began, or how investigators discovered it. But federal authorities have known about the scam for a while.

IT workers earned millions for North Korea's nuclear programs. North Korean workers also broke into computer networks and stole data from their employers, the Justice Department claimed. They preserved access for future hacking and extortion, the agency said.

North Korean government hackers stole record-breaking virtual assets worth $630 million to over $1 billion last year, according to UN experts in February. The panel of experts reported that hackers used increasingly sophisticated methods to access cyberfinance networks and steal information from governments, individuals, and companies that could aid North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programs.