It must be a group of outside parties who use North Korea as a mask and/or employer, right?
The New Yorker ran a piece on this recently-ish[1]:
The most promising students are encouraged to use computers at schools. Those who excel at mathematics are placed at specialized high schools. The best students can travel abroad, to compete in such events as the International Mathematical Olympiad. Many winners of the Fields Medal, the celebrated prize in mathematics, placed highly in the contest when they were teen-agers.
[1] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/04/26/the-incredible...
North Korea has been ruled by the Kims for 74 years at this point.
A few computers aren't expensive for even a low-wealth country, and math is cheap to teach.
The short version: they take their best math-inclined students, and send groups of them in China, to learn about computer hacking (and the world at large, to know what or who to hack). The group aspect serves as a self-surveillance check, to minimize risks of defections.
It’s not ideological, it’s practical; get a cybersecurity degree in the states/Europe and live “lavishly” with your family or flee and never see anyone you love again (they don’t kill them they’re just poor and in NK).