North Korea has stolen $2bn to pay for its weapons programme, according to a confidential United Nations report that has leaked. The money came from cyber-attacks on banks and crypto-currency exchanges. The BBC reported that the UN is investigating 35 such attacks, citing sources.
The report went to the Security Council’s North Korea sanctions committee. Its authors say Pyongyang “used cyber-space to launch increasingly sophisticated attacks to steal funds from financial institutions and crypto-currency exchanges to generate income.”
Exchanges were the easier mark. Hitting them let the North “generate income in ways that are harder to trace and subject to less government oversight and regulation than the traditional banking sector,” the report says. Experts are also looking at cyber-mining, in which powerful computers are used to generate virtual currency, as another way of earning foreign money.
Ships, weapons and sanctions
Hacking is not the only breach the report describes. It says North Korea has broken UN sanctions through illicit ship-to-ship transfers, and has obtained items linked to weapons of mass destruction.
The Security Council has penalised Pyongyang since 2006. Sanctions ban exports that include coal, iron, lead, textiles and seafood, and cap imports of crude oil and refined petroleum products.
Missiles on Tuesday
The leak landed as the North was firing again. It launched two missiles on Tuesday, the fourth launch in less than two weeks. In a statement on Wednesday, leader Kim Jong-un called the launches a warning against joint military exercises by the US and South Korea. Pyongyang has described those exercises as a violation of peace agreements.
Mr Kim had also agreed that North Korea would stop launching intercontinental ballistic missiles. A second summit between the two leaders in Hanoi in 2019 ended with no agreement, and denuclearisation talks have stalled since. Both sides say they still want diplomacy.
Washington responds
A US State Department spokeswoman gave Reuters a statement in response to the report. “We call upon all responsible states to take action to counter North Korea’s ability to conduct malicious cyber activity, which generates revenue that supports its unlawful WMD and ballistic missile programmes,” she said.
Sources
- North Korea 'stole $2bn for weapons via cyber-attacks'
- North Korea 'stole $2bn for weapons via cyber-attacks'
