UN secret report accuses North Korea of stealing $ 2 billion from banks and cryptocurrency exchanges for developing weapons

According to a confidential UN report, North Korea finances the development of weapons with cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies stolen from banks and cryptocurrency exchanges.

According to the message
Reuters, a report created by “independent experts” and submitted last week to the UN Security Council Sanctions Committee on North Korea, said the DPRK carried out “massive and increasingly sophisticated” hacks to steal about $ 2 billion that was laundered over the Internet.

Reuters reported that the North Korean mission to the UN did not comment on the report.

According to reports, experts examined “at least 35 recorded cases where DPRK entities attacked financial institutions, cryptocurrency exchanges and mining enterprises in order to obtain foreign currency” in approximately 17 countries. Many of North Korea’s hackers operate under the auspices of the General Intelligence Bureau, an intelligence agency that conducts covert operations.

A UN report said hacking cryptocurrency exchanges allowed North Korea to “generate revenue in a way that is harder to track and subject to less government oversight and regulation than the traditional banking sector.”

US President Donald Trump met several times with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to discuss the abandonment of the nuclear weapons program. Reuters appealed to the representative of the US State Department with a request to comment on the UN report and received a response:

“We call on all responsible states to take measures to counter North Korea’s ability to conduct malicious cyber activities that generate revenue in support of its illegal weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs.”

North Korea has more than once been associated with major hacks in the cryptocurrency industry. Back in the fall of last year, Group-IB announced that the North Korean hacker group Lazarus stole $ 571 million in cryptocurrencies. In December, it was also reported that North Korean hackers hunt
to cryptocurrencies of ordinary users. In addition, in the spring, according to data provided by East Security, North Korean hackers took
attempted phishing attack on users of the South Korean exchange Upbit.

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