Every time North Korea boasts of its weapons advances, the question arises of where it obtains the resources to finance them. Although information about the country’s economy is extremely scarce, it is no secret that international sanctions seek for a long time prevent the most isolated nation in the world enhance its growing war power.

Experts such as Evans Revere, former diplomat and US State Department official, they consider that Cryptocurrency theft is one of the main ways North Korea uses to finance its nuclear ambitions. In 2024, according to Chainalysis, hackers linked to the Asian country were responsible for more than half of these “heists.”

North Korea, engine of cryptocurrency theft

The aforementioned analysis firm details that malicious actors linked to North Korea were behind 47 incidents. This is equivalent to 1.34 billion dollars in stolen cryptocurrencies, which represents 61% of the thefts recorded this year. Most of this criminal activity was concentrated between January and July, and decreased in the second half of 2024.

Chainalysis attributes this drop to the meeting that Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un held in the middle of this year. Following the meeting, Russia released millions of dollars in North Korean assets that had been frozen in compliance with UN Security Council sanctions. The ties between the countries were strengthened.

Kim Jong Un with members of the Korean People’s Army

The New York Times points out that Russia could be helping North Korea access international banking networkseven though Moscow has also suffered similar sanctions since the invasion of Ukraine. This could explain why the Asian country has decreased the intensity of its cybercriminal activity in recent months.

Among the most notable attacks on centralized services in 2024 are those of DMM Bitcoin, a Japanese exchange that lost $305 million in bitcoin, and WazirX, an Indian exchange that suspended withdrawals in July after being hacked by cybercriminals linked to North Korea and losing at least $230 million.

North Korean cybercriminals also carry out other types of criminal activities. This year it came to light that a US security company thought it had hired an engineer, but ended up hiring a hacker from North Koreawhich attempted to infect their systems with malware, but was unsuccessful.

Images | techopiniones with Google Image 3

In techopiniones | North Korea has long hinted that it can achieve any goal. It was not a bluff, and he demonstrated it with a missile