North Korean hackers stole about $ 316 million to improve their nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, UN security experts have found.
The dictatorship continued to challenge UN sanctions by modernizing its nuclear program and hacking UN financial institutions and virtual exchange offices to fund its efforts to develop weapons, experts said.
North Korea’s “total theft of virtual assets from 2019 to November 2020 is valued at approximately $ 316.4 million,” according to an unidentified country, said the panel of experts monitoring sanctions against the Asian country. in a report sent to members of the UN Security Council on Monday.
In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, on the left, attends a meeting of the Central Committee of the Korean Workers’ Party in Pyongyang, North Korea, Monday, February 8, 2021 (Korea Central News Agency / Korea News Service via AP)
The panel investigated North Korea’s leading intelligence agency, the Reconnaissance General Bureau, about “the segmentation of virtual assets and providers of virtual asset services and attacks on defense companies.”
The theft, while significant, is less than the $ 2 billion in assets that North Korean hackers stole in 2019 to fund their nuclear capabilities, according to the panel.
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The hackers’ efforts to attack the UN’s financial systems continued into 2020. The efforts allowed North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to have access to fissile material – an essential ingredient in the production of nuclear weapons – and to maintain the country’s nuclear facilities. .
“[North Korea] exhibited new short and medium range ballistic missile systems, launched by submarines and intercontinentals at military parades, “experts said in their report on Monday.
Experts added that the country “announced the preparation for the testing and production of new ballistic missile warheads and the development of tactical nuclear weapons … and updated its ballistic missile infrastructure”.
In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attends a meeting of the Central Committee of the Korean Workers’ Party in Pyongyang, North Korea, Monday, February 8, 2021. (Central Agency Korea News / Korea News Service via AP)
They also recommend that the Security Council impose sanctions on four North Korean men, including Choe Song Chol, Im Song Sun, Pak Hwa Song and Hwang Kil Su.
The Security Council has imposed sanctions on North Korea since its first nuclear explosion test in 2006, limiting its exports and imports in an effort to pressure the country to end its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. North Korea, however, continued to challenge sanctions and develop its development of weapons and “malicious cyber activities”.
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The nation’s threat to the United States increased in 2017, after tests that included detonating an alleged thermonuclear warhead and flight tests demonstrating that its intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) could reach the depths of the American continent.
President Trump then met with Kim in 2018 – becoming the first U.S. president to set foot in North Korea in more than 20 years – in an effort to improve diplomatic ties.
These efforts were hampered, however, when the United States rejected North Korea’s demands for major sanctions in exchange for a fragmented agreement that partly waived its nuclear weapons capabilities.
A photo provided by Dong-A Ilbo of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump within the demilitarized zone (DMZ) that separates South and North Korea on June 30, 2019 in Panmunjom, Korea South. (Photo by Dong-A Ilbo via Getty Images / Getty Images)
With diplomatic efforts at an impasse, Kim must start all over again with President Joe Biden, who previously called him a “thug” and criticized Trump’s negotiating tactics with the North Korean leader.
The country suffered a blow to the economy in 2020 amid the pandemic of COVID-19, which forced the closure of its borders, severely limiting the legal and illegal transfer of goods and the movement of people, according to experts.
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At a North Korean political conference, Kim harshly criticized his government’s economic agencies for their unspecified passivity and “self-protection trends”, state media in the North said on Tuesday.
His statements came after a ruling party congress last month, where he called for greater state control over the economy, while pledging to continue efforts to boost his nuclear program, which North Korea sees as an impediment to the USA and therefore a guarantee of the continuation of the existence of the Kim dynasty.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.