Amidst yet another big hack attributed to North Korea-linked operatives, some 
crypto builders have confessed they are passing tests during interviews to 
developers to make sure they are not North Korean agents. The Fool-Proof “Kim 
Jong‑Un Test” For Crypto Developers Once again, the Democratic People’s 
Republic of Korea (DPRK) is responsible for some action movie-sounding moves. 
Following the attribution of the April 1st $285 million attack on Drift 
Protocol to UNC4736, a North Korea–aligned, state‑sponsored hacking group, 
multiple crypto industry actors have taken to the social network X to share 
their fears and methods to combat what essentially are DPRK secret agents. All 
details on the long‑term social engineering, fake professional personas, 
in‑person conference meetings and compromised tooling employed in the attack 
can be consulted on a yesterday’s article in our sister’s website Bitcoinist. 
Unbelievable and hilarious as it may sound, the most straightforward strategy 
some of these builders have found is asking candidates to explicitly insult 
Kim Jong-Un, North Korea’s regime head, during interviews. Related Reading: 
This Bitcoin Trader Lost Millions In 2 Weeks, Here’s How Crypto Builders Share 
Proof Yesterday, Tanuki42, an independent blockchain security investigator, 
shared an actual video of a “North Korean IT worker being stopped dead in 
their tracks upon being required to insult Kim Jong Un”. In the video, “Taro 
Aikuchi” wasn’t just unable to repeat after the interviewer that “Kim Jong-Un 
is a fat, ugly pig”: he was taken aback and visibly nervous. Here is a video 
of a North Korean IT worker being stopped dead in their tracks upon being 
required to insult Kim Jong Un. It won&#8217;t work forever, but right now it&#8217;s 
genuinely an effective filter. I&#8217;m yet to come across one who can say it. 
https://t.co/8FFVPxNm8X pic.twitter.com/KXI5efMo5L — tanuki42 (@tanuki42_) 
April 6, 2026 In a different video shared by the security investigator, “Taro” 
tells him amusingly that he “knows North Korea well”, but then experiences 
very convenient connection issues when is asked to say “Fuck Kim Jong-Un”. The 
clip I posted was actually round 2. Here&#8217;s round 1 &#8211; I tell Taro I&#8217;m a North 
Korea security researcher, he tells me he &#8220;knows North Korea well&#8221;. Mysterious 
connection issues when I say &#8220;Fuck Kim Jong Un&#8221;, which he apologises for on 
reconnecting.😅 pic.twitter.com/M89KDDmASW — tanuki42 (@tanuki42_) April 6, 
2026 Later on the thread, Tanuki42 showed the candidate changed his Telegram 
handle, wiped their chat and blocked him after the interview. 🚨@taroaikuchi 
just changed his Telegram handle @cryptotrading2150-&gt;@cryptodegen202 &#8211; he&#8217;d 
already wiped our chat and blocked me 😭 pic.twitter.com/EcQedYyGG7 — tanuki42 
(@tanuki42_) April 6, 2026 His X account and LinkedIn page also disappeared. 
Crypto investor and fund manager Jason Choi quoted Tanuki42’s thread to echo 
the message, claiming that a lot of crypto founders have shared with him that 
this test works. Several founders in crypto have told me they ran this test 
and it genuinely worked https://t.co/DIZHoZDZ0l — Jason Choi (@mrjasonchoi) 
April 6, 2026 Crypto founder and RWA‑focused builder Pav replied to Choi 
saying that he has been using the tactic 2024, after he found out he was 
interviewing a DPRK agent for an engineering position in 2022. have been using 
this since 2024 and works like a charm https://t.co/nYWYIGxrAA — Parv 
(@Parv_EP) April 6, 2026 Simon Wijckmans, another cybersecurity founder and 
product leader, also replied to Choi sharing a clip from one of his own 
interviews with a candidate, “William Nation”, who failed to say that Kim 
Jong-Un is a dictator after Wijckmans requested him to do it Yep 
pic.twitter.com/Aht731yvRc — Simon (@SimonWijckmans) April 6, 2026 Some Crypto 
Builders Remain Sceptic Despite the overwhelming evidence, the wackiness of 
the story still finds flabbergasted nonbelievers. On a different thread from a 
few days ago, Paolo Caversaccio, a Switzerland‑based engineer and entrepreneur 
focused on cryptography, privacy and security, shared one of his attempts to 
employ the same Kim Jong-Un insult tactic to make sure he is not working with 
North Korean spies. going forward I will request from every external 
contributor to my repos a nice Kim Jong Un insult; it&#8217;s an easy but powerful 
way to prevent DPRK dev code (and some of them are really good) to be merged 
(they will never ever get the approval to do this). this guy passed it… 
pic.twitter.com/Ms86or5GiP — sudo rm -rf -no-preserve-root / (@pcaversaccio) 
April 4, 2026 He then entered an argument with long‑time Ethereum ecosystem 
developer and founder Micah Zoltu regarding the actual effectiveness of the 
technique. But Caversaccio’s argument was compelling: he has been dealing with 
DPRK IT workers for more than three years. After dealing for more than 3 years 
with DPRK IT workers I can confidently claim this filter is very strong. We 
will probably release some DPRK interviews publicly at some and will link it 
here, they always fail with this question. You probably think my filter is 
some random… — sudo rm -rf -no-preserve-root / (@pcaversaccio) April 5, 2026 
Market Implications Related Reading: Crypto Tokenization Boom Or Time Bomb? 
Four Hidden Risks Wall Street Is Ignoring The real deal for traders right now 
isn’t guessing the next meme, but identifying which teams can defend against 
nation‑state attackers. For a while now, crypto has been entering a phase 
where geopolitics, state‑sponsored cyber ops, and HR compliance are as 
important as code audits. North Korean infiltration risk is now a structural 
factor for the industry. Considering this, traders should remember that 
protocols with weak contributor vetting, opaque multisigs, or ad‑hoc 
governance present elevated tail‑risk that markets will increasingly price in. 
It is also advisable to look for projects that can prove stronger operational 
security, incident response and KYC for critical roles may enjoy relatively 
stronger valuations and more sticky TVL. At the moment of writing, BTC trades 
for around $68k on the daily chart. Source: BTCUSDT on Tradingview. Cover 
image from Perplexity. BTCUSDT chart from Tradingview.

Crypto Trust Crisis — The “Kim Jong‑Un Test” Is Exposing Secret North Korean Moles

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