North Korea Used Cryptocurrency To Fund Weapons Of Mass Destruction

North Korea used cryptocurrency and fiat currency stolen from banks and exchanges to fund weapons of mass destruction according to a UN report that we are reading more about in today’s altcoin news.

The report which was seen by Reuters and researched by independent experts was presented to the U.N. Security Council North Korea Sanctions committee last week. according to the report, it looks like North Korea used cryptocurrency and widespread and ‘’increasingly sophisticated’’ hacks to collect more than $2 billion which is laundered over the web. Reuters stated that the North Korean mission to the United Nations did not comment further when asked about the report. The experts are looking into more than 35 reported instances of DPRK actors attacking financial institutions, crypto exchanges and mining activities that were created to earn foreign currency in about 17 nations. Many of the hackers in the country operated under the Reconnaissance General Bureau which is an intelligence agency that handles clandestine operations.

According to the UN report, crypto exchanges were targeted and they unknowingly allowed North Korea to ‘’generate income in ways that are harder to trace and subject less government oversight and regulation that the traditional banking sector.’’ The US President Donald Trump met with the North Korean leader in a bid to make him drop the nuclear weapons program. Reuters spoke with a US State Department spokesperson and got the response:

 “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 programs.”

The precious reports were also linked to North Korea and major hacks at crypto exchanges. Another South Korean agency as reported in the latest cryptocurrency news, pointed the finger at their neighbor in 2018 saying that the domestic exchanges were attacked and lost billions of funds. It was also investigated at that time that the rogue nation was behind the attack of the Japanese Coincheck exchange which led to the theft of more than $500 million in cryptocurrency. Most recently, hackers from North Korea is said to have been targeting users of the UpBit exchange with multiple phishing email campaigns.