The Kim regime steals $2 billion and yet they supposedly don’t have enough money to buy food for their own people. When are the North Korea apologists going to realize that the Kim regime wants to keep a portion of their population poor and undernourished:
People watch a television news screen showing a file footage of North Korea's missile launch, at a railway station in Seoul on August 6, 2019 (AFP Photo/Jung Yeon-je)
United Nations (United States) (AFP) – North Korea has stolen up to $2 billion from banks and cryptocurrency exchanges through cyberattacks to fund its nuclear missiles program, according to a United Nations report seen by AFP Wednesday.
The UN is investigating at least 35 reported instances of Pyongyang “attacking financial institutions, cryptocurrency exchanges and mining activity designed to earn foreign currency,” it said.
“Large-scale attacks against cryptocurrency exchanges allow the DPRK to generate income in ways that are harder to trace and subject to less government insight and regulation than the traditional banking sector,” the report added.
Considering how little North Korea depends on the Internet that cyberattacks would be of limited value compared to other nations:
North Korea on Saturday denounced reported U.S. preparations for possible cyberattacks against the communist nation, saying it is ready and willing to respond to “any type of warfare.”
Earlier this month, U.S. media outlet Foreign Policy reported that for the past six months, Washington has been laying the groundwork in countries including South Korea and Japan for possible cyberattacks on the North. The process involved installing fiber cables as bridges into the region and setting up remote bases and listening posts.
“The United States must discard its silly dream of realizing its ambitions for invasion through cyberattacks on us,” the Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party, said in a commentary.
“As (we) have everything we need, and we are prepared, we can respond to any type of warfare that the U.S. wants,” it added. [Yonhap]
It looks like ROK intelligence must have had some chatter warning them of a possible upcoming cyberattack:
South Korea has upgraded its military information surveillance status in response to growing threats of North Korean cyber attacks, a military official said Sunday.
“We believe there’s a larger possibility that North Korea may launch cyber attacks on the South, and recently upgraded our Information Operation Condition,” the official said, without elaborating further. [Korea Herald]
