North Korean IT workers have infiltrated the Fortune 500

A flagged post mentions this is racist and typical anti immigration rhetoric.

That's not true, there are only two types of North Korean people you'll meet, either those that have defected and escaped North Korea or those that are agents of the state of North Korea.

There are very few defectors in existence and once they escape they're given full South Korean citizenship. This article is not about those people.

The vast majority of North Koreans outside North Korea are not defectors, instead they are controlled state assets. There are no North Korean people outside the country that are free citizens. Every single North Korean authorised to leave the country is working directly for their government often to raise money for the regime, to steal IP, to infiltrate for some nefarious purpose.

Having one of these North Korean active assets in your company is extremely dangerous, your business is now at risk of leaks, theft, or worst something being modified like added vulnerabilities that could be exploited later in cyber attacks.

So no, this article is not racist at all and really has nothing to do with the recent political situation.

What about Australia in comparison? Australians can be legally compelled in secret courts to install backdoors in the companies in which they are employed, and gagged from telling the company itself or any journalists (see the Access and Assistance Bill). That doesn't cross the same 'agents of the state' line?

Yeah this is true and a good point. As an Australian when the government passed that law it hurt so much, like a betrayal of enormous magnitude, it's disgusting.

I suppose one difference is that I can fight the government legally on the issue and am more free in many ways to resist, especially as I'm not employed by the state.

But I do agree, on the scale (0-1?) of how much your government can take away your liberty (when you haven't committed a crime) and compel you commit crimes, most western countries probably sit around 0.01 to 0.05 maybe, North Korea sits around 0.98 to 0.99 and Australia probably 0.4

Thanks for bringing that up, Australia seems to be the test state for how many draconian laws a "free" society will bare, and it is terrifying.