Thousands of North Koreans continue to work abroad in the information technology (IT) sector, multiple U.S. government agencies warned Tuesday, despite sanctions prohibiting Pyongyang from sending workers abroad.

According to a joint advisory by the Department of the Treasury, Department of State and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), most of the North’s IT workers are in China and Russia, with a smaller number in Africa and Southeast Asia. 

Pyongyang dispatches thousands of “highly skilled IT workers around the world to generate revenue that contributes to its weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and ballistic missile programs,” the advisory states.

The “vast