The UN Security Council recently revealed in its annual report that North Korea is conducting cyberattacks and using blockchain technologies to obtain foreign exchange and evade economic sanctions, according to the Nikkei Asia Review.
Before the council's report, a group of experts stated that the country was behind hacking approximately 670 million dollars of foreign exchange and cryptocurrency during the years 2015-2018.
Although North Korea has been hacking various foreign financial enterprises since 2015, it appears that it acquired most of its money during the period between January 2017 and September 2018.
According to the report, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea has successfully hacked several Asian cryptocurrency services at least 5 times, stealing a total of 571 million dollars. Additionally, the attacks were carried out by a specialized North Korean military unit.
In January 2018, the Japanese cryptocurrency service, Coincheck, fell victim to hacking, resulting in the loss of cryptocurrency worth 530 million dollars.
Japan suffered another cyber attack in September 2018, during which it lost 60 million dollars.
South Korea has also been the victim of hacking and suspects North Korea is responsible. One example is the popular e-commerce platform Interpark, where the personal information of 10 million users was compromised due to cyberattacks. The hackers demanded $2.7 million to return the stolen data.
Αποφυγή οικονομικών κυρώσεων
According to the United Nations committee, North Korea used blockchain technology to cover its tracks and evade the economic sanctions imposed by the UN.
According to the report by Nikkei Asia Review, the UN committee stated:
“Cryptocurrency provides the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea with more ways to evade sanctions, given that it is harder to trace and is independent of government regulations”.
Also, North Korea is accused of using the anonymity of certain cryptocurrencies to evade economic sanctions.
For example, Marine Chain, a company based in Hong Kong that uses blockchain technology to buy and sell ships, is believed to have done business with North Korea until it shut down in September 2018.
It is believed that North Korea was able to acquire significant amounts of cryptocurrency through this partnership (aside from internet attacks).
