gzt: Behodar's claim is that the NZ Citizen picked up the laptop from company x.

 

New Zealand citizen to receive and operate the company’s laptop.

 

 

Does not definitely indicate that the citizen uplifted the laptop from company x. The wording in the linked article 'receive' is used multiple times and is entirely compatible with courier for example. At some point I guess something definitive will be published.

 

It's possible the company thought they were hiring a "remote" worker and simply used a courier to send the equipment to the new "employee".

The NK agent could just have said "I have covid, can't come into the office this week, can you courier the laptop to my address please?" and most companies, victims of social engineering in this case, would do it. 

Of course, it shows the hiring process is lacking in verification and authentication.