The U.S. State Department: “One-third of the world’s cryptocurrency thefts are from North Korea”

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, The U.S. Department of State pointed out that “one-third of the global virtual currency theft last year was attributed to North Korea.”
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Seth Bailey, the U.S. State Department’s Deputy Special Representative for North Korea, stated at a joint U.S.-South Korea private symposium on blocking North Korean virtual asset laundering held in New York on the 27th local time, “North Korea is funding programs that create global security instability through virtual currency theft.”
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, Bailey referred to a report by the blockchain research firm TRM Labs, explaining that “an estimated one-third of last year’s global virtual asset theft is believed to have been carried out by North Korean hackers,” and stating, “This year, theft is expected to increase even more.”
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, According to a recent report by TRM Labs, the scale of cryptocurrency theft due to hacking in the first half of this year reached $1.38 billion, nearly doubling from a year ago.
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, Bailey said, “Cryptocurrency theft is a relatively new source of income for North Korea,” and stated, “It is estimated that over 40% of North Korea’s funding for mass destruction weapons and ballistic missile development programs is obtained through cryptocurrency channels.”
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, He emphasized, “We are making efforts to establish direct government policies and procedures that directly impact restricting North Korea’s actions by closely cooperating with countries that share similar views such as Korea and Japan.”
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