Cyberattacks on cryptocurrency exchanges have been a major source of funds for North Korea in the past year, a United Nations report has unveiled. According to the document, the sanctioned nation has also been developing its nuclear and missile programs.
North Korea hits cryptocurrency exchanges, sanctions monitors say
Hackers controlled by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) continued to target financial institutions and crypto platforms such as exchanges, Reuters reported citing a confidential UN report. Its annual edition, produced by independent sanctions monitors and submitted to the Security Council sanctions committee for North Korea on Friday, says:
Cyberattacks, particularly on cryptocurrency assets, remain an important revenue source [for DPRK].
The report further details that, according to a member state, “DPRK cyber actors stole more than $50 million between 2020 and mid-2021 from at least three cryptocurrency exchanges in North America, Europe and the United States. Asia”.
The monitors also quote an estimate by Chainalysis which recently revealed that the regime in Pyongyang has launched no less than seven attacks on crypto companies in 2021 resulting in the theft of almost $400 million in digital assets. “These attacks targeted primarily investment firms and centralized exchanges,” the blockchain analysis firm explained in January.
In 2019, UN sanctions monitors reported that North Korea had amassed around $2 billion from increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks. The digital money was allegedly used to fund his weapons of mass destruction programs. Their latest report notes:
Although no nuclear tests or launches of ICBMs [intercontinental ballistic missiles] were reported, DPRK continued to develop its capability for production of nuclear fissile materials.
The authors are confident that the maintenance and development of North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile infrastructure has not stopped. They also point out that the country, which has been under UN sanctions since 2006, has ramped up its ballistic missile testing, having carried out nine launches in January, the highest monthly number to date.
