Yeah, they can. But then that is illegal and the authorities are on the lookout for it. One among the leaked wikileak messages was a communication from the sta

Yeah, they can. But then that is illegal and the authorities are on the lookout for it. One among the leaked wikileak messages was a communication from the state department to their german counterparts to warn them that a company trying to buy fiber optic gyroscopes from a german company is actually north korea. When my friends were building a micro satelite as a university project in Hungary the local secret service showed up uninvited. They were absolutely friendly, geeked out with them about the project, and asked the group to upgrade their alarm system. Even recommended a brand. They also gave them tips on which countries better to avoided when they travel with the satelite to the launch pad. How did they hear about their project? In short we don’t know. The speculation is that they got a tip that someone is buying space related hardware at this adress from a partner agency and they have been asked to check them out if they are a legit operation or a shell company smuggling parts. Watchers be watching, and there is an extensive aparatus for this.