The United Nations Security Council committee on North Korea stated that:
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea cyber actors were raising money for its WMD (weapons of mass destruction) programs, with total proceeds to date estimated at up to two billion US dollars.
But, North Korea‘s official state media, the Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) denied all the allegations related to the theft of $2billion from Crypto Exchange and Banks by North Korean agents.
In response to the allegations, Korea’s Central News Agency (KCNA), quoted a statement from the spokesperson for the National Coordination Committee of the DPRK for Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism. It accused that the United States and other antagonistic forces of spreading false and malicious rumors. It stated:
Such a fabrication by the hostile forces is nothing but a sort of a nasty game aimed at tarnishing the image of our Republic and finding justification for sanctions and pressure campaign against the DPRK.
They also added that the UN is “re-enacting the same old trick as the Hitler fascist propagandists used to cling to.”
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The United Nations was investigating 35 cyberattacks purported North Korea. The attacks were spread across 17 countries, across the globe. 10 of the 35 attacks were directly targeted at South Korea, while India became the victim of three attacks.
In recent years, Pyongyang has been blamed for a series of online attacks, mostly on financial networks, in South Korea, the United States, and over a dozen other countries. Cybercrime experts assert that cyber activities of such kinds, generate hard currency for the administrative forces.
The core of the allegations against North Korea lies in the country’s connection to a hacking group called ‘Lazarus.’ Lazarus has been linked to $81 million cyber heists at the Bangladesh central bank in 2016 and a 2014 attack on Sony’s Hollywood studio.
Things have been shaky with the US as well. Even after three meetings between the U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Washington has made nominal progress towards its goal of getting North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons program.
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On Saturday, North Korea’s vice foreign minister announced that hopes of discussions with Washington were decaying, and criticized Mike Pompeo’s (politician and attorney) recent comments on North Korea’s behavior.
