eFM News

North Korea stole 316.4 million dollars in virtual assets last year to support its illegal development of weapons of mass destruction, in blatant violation of Security Council resolutions, a U.N. report said Wednesday.

A panel of experts under the U.N. Security Council committee said "cyberactors" continued to conduct operations against financial institutions and virtual currency exchange houses in 2020 to generate revenue to support North Korea's weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs.

It tied BeagleBoyz, a hacker group under the North's Reconnaissance General Bureau, to the 2016 heist of Bangladesh Bank and other cyberattacks, adding that it attempted to steal nearly 2 billion dollars since 2015.

The report also pointed to the North's continued violation of the 500,000-barrel cap on oil imports, as well as its exports of coal and other minerals via ship-to-ship transfers despite U.N. sanctions.

According to the panel, these illicit acts helped advance North Korea's weapons development, including the production of fissile material, maintenance of nuclear facilities, and upgrades to its ballistic missile infrastructure.

Last week, the North fired-off what appeared to be two short-range ballistic missiles into the East Sea, possibly resuming such launches after a yearlong hiatus.

The U.N. Security Council held an emergency meeting on Tuesday and condemned the launches as "destabilizing," but it did not issue a joint statement.