North Korean Engineer Suspected of Developing Apps in Japan

Yokohama, May 18 (Jiji Press)--A North Korean engineer in his 40s living in China is suspected of having developed smartphone apps in Japan under the name of an acquaintance, sources familiar with the Japanese police investigation said Wednesday.

The engineer is believed to have sent the money earned to the account of a relative living in Japan via the acquaintance's account and withdrawn cash in China, said the sources familiar with the investigation by Kanagawa prefectural police.

The police sent papers on the 57-year-old acquaintance, a South Korean man living in Yokohama, Kanagawa, south of Tokyo, to public prosecutors Wednesday on suspicion of sending money abroad illicitly in violation of the banking law.

They also sent papers on the 75-year-old female relative in Tokyo to the prosecutors for allegedly helping the acquaintance commit the crime.

The two have admitted the allegations against them, the sources said. The police allege that some of the money were sent to North Korea.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]