
Video screenshot via Prime Video
Outsourcing is a pretty common practice, and the animation industry is no stranger to it. However, it appears this involvement may spread even past closed doors.
Recent findings by security researcher Nick Roy suggest that American animation studios may have unknowingly outsourced work to North Korea. Roy, who scours North Korea’s internet during his free time, stumbled upon a trove of animation sketches on an unsecured North Korean cloud server.
The unearthed drawings bear a resemblance to ccharacters and scenes from shows like Amazon’s Invincible and HBO Max’s Iyanu: Child of Wonder, as well as work from Japanese animation houses.
An investigation by the Stimson Center, a Washington DC think tank, suggests American studios likely weren’t aware of any North Korean involvement. The outsourcing trail seems to lead through South Korean and potentially Chinese studios, with American companies contracting animation work to these intermediaries.
“It was different cartoons that were being animated at the time. They were working files,” explains Martyn Williams, senior fellow of 38 North, the center’s North Korea-focused division. “Some of them would be files and say just a single character on them. Some of them would be a succession of files, and you could see the character moving… It was definitely work that was being done to produce an animation.”
Both Skybound Entertainment, producer of Invincible, and Lion Forge Entertainment, producer of Iyanu, have distanced themselves from the controversy. Skybound maintains it doesn’t contract with companies in China or North Korea, and is actively investigating the situation. Lion Forge reveals it contracted with a South Korean studio but severed ties in January upon discovering further outsourcing of Iyanu work.
This discovery exposes the complexities of the global animation industry. Studios seeking cost-effective solutions might inadvertently breach sanctions or contribute to unethical labor practices.
North Korea remains under strict international sanctions, and these revelations raise concerns about potential violations. Animation studios may be unwittingly breaking sanctions by working through opaque subcontracting chains. Further, the use of North Korean labor could bolster the regime’s finances and contribute to human rights abuses.
[via CNN, Daily Beast, The Register, Korea JoongAng Daily, images via various sources]