Despite US Sanctions, TV Shows May Have Unknowingly Used North Korean Animators

Multiple major entertainment companies, including Prime Video and Max, may have unknowingly outsourced animation work on their shows to North Korea, despite US sanctions on the country. Cybersecurity researcher Nick Roy has been scanning North Korea’s tiny internet presence, spotting new websites coming online and providing a glimpse of its digital life for almost 10 years.

However, in December last year, Roy discovered a weak cloud server on a North Korean IP address containing thousands of animation files that hinted North Korea was working on international TV projects. The country had sanctions placed upon the regime due to its ongoing human rights abuses and nuclear warfare programs, prohibiting US companies from working with Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) companies or individuals.

Wired reported that the cache had animation cells, videos, and even notes discussing the work and going into changes that needed to be made to ongoing projects. Some images appeared from an Amazon Prime Video superhero show and an upcoming children’s anime at HBO. The server is still live, but strangely stopped being used in February. While there is a login page, the contents can be accessed freely. “I found the login page after I found all the exposed files,” Roy said.

The files contained editing comments and instructions in Chinese but were translated into Korean. “For a lot of the animation files, we would find things like spreadsheets with details of the workflow,” 38 North Project analysis Martyn Williams said. Wired was shown a small sample of the files which had detailed anime images and video clips, with notes for the authors and date stamps. In one instance, the report had a note for an animator “to improve the shape of the character’s head.”

“We do not work with North Korean companies, or any affiliated entities, and have no knowledge of any North Korean companies working on our animation. Our policies strictly prohibit any subcontracting to any third-party without our express prior written consent, which, in this case, was neither sought nor granted,” Skybound Entertainment responded on its Twitter. “Skybound Entertainment takes these allegations seriously and has initiated a thorough internal review to verify and rectify any potential issues. We have also notified the proper authorities and are cooperating with all appropriate bodies.”