Documents found on a North Korean server suggest US studios may have unknowingly outsourced animation work

Source: CNN

Documents found on a North Korean server suggest US studios may have unknowingly outsourced animation work

By Sean Lyngaas, CNN
8 minute read
Published 3:00 AM EDT, Mon April 22, 2024

(CNN) — North Korean illustrators and graphic designers appear to have helped produce work for US animation studios unbeknownst to those companies, suggesting that unreleased episodes of a few popular American cartoons could include work from one of the most closed-off economies in the world.

The revelation comes from a trove of documents recently discovered by US researchers inside a computer server housed in North Korea. It’s unclear how the files ended up in this tightly controlled portion of the internet, but the researchers who analyzed them told CNN they appear to be the result of work that was unknowingly outsourced to North Korean workers.

The US has imposed strict sanctions prohibiting American companies from doing business with the nuclear-armed regime.

In addition to drawings for an upcoming season of the Amazon Prime Video show “Invincible,” the files also contain sketches and videos that resemble work for “Iyanu: Child of Wonder,” a superhero series slated to air on Max, the streaming service that, along with CNN, is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery.

There is no evidence that the studios had any knowledge their proprietary work was on a North Korean server.

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Read more: https://edition.cnn.com/2024/04/22/politics/us-animation-studio-sketches-korean-server/index.html