N Korea stealing millions in cyber attacks on crypto firms to fund missile programs: UN
North Korea has continued to expand its nuclear and ballistic missile programs throughout last year and cyberattacks, particularly on cryptocurrency assets, remained a key revenue source for Pyongyang, according to a United Nations report. In 2021, cyber theft netted nearly $400 million, including $50 million between 2020 and mid-2021, investigators revealed. The targets were mainly three crypto exchanges in North America, Europe and Asia, the UN report further underscored.
The executive summary of the report claimed that “cyberattacks, particularly on cryptocurrency assets, remained an important revenue source” for Kim Jong’s “acceleration” of new short-range and possibly medium-range projectiles, the Associated Press reported, citing the UN report.
The investments were made for “incorporating both ballistic and guidance technologies and using both solid and liquid propellants. New technologies tested including a possible hypersonic guiding warhead and a maneuverable re-entry vehicle,” the UNSC report added.
North Korea in 2019 alone accumulated $2 billion for weapons of mass destruction by using sophisticated cyberattacks, the UN report noted. Referring to an analysis published last month by a security firm ‘Chainalysis,’ the UN estimated about $400 million worth of digital assets were amassed last year solely through arbitrary cyberattacks by state-backed hackers Pyongyang. It is to mention that the UN report followed at least nine missile tests conducted by North Korea under the leadership of authoritarian leader Kim Jong-un. The UN investigator panel also highlighted that Pyongyang has “continued to seek material, technology, and know-how for these programmes overseas, including through cyber means and joint scientific research.”
North Korea continues to flout UN sanctions
The UNSC had initially imposed strict sanctions on North Korea after it conducted the first nuclear test in 2006. However, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) “demonstrated increased capabilities for rapid development, wife mobility and improved resilience of its missile forces.” The report noted that “the quantity of illicit imports of refined petroleum increased sharply in the second half of 2021, although at a much lower level than the previous year.” In addition, Pyongyang has also deliberately evaded maritime sanctions using “obfuscated financial and ownership networks.”
Amid the constant power-show, the internal situation in the country has continued to worsen stemming from the sanctions. The economy, due to lack of adequate investment in internal affairs, compounded with the COVID-19 pandemic, has deteriorated the humanitarian situation in North Korea. However, experts have pointed out that lack of information from within the country has made it hard to determine the gravity of suffering rendered by the international sanctions to curtail unnecessary escalation of missile tests.
