North Korean authorities arrested former military hackers accused of stealing state funds from two banks and laundering the proceeds through cryptocurrency.
The group, according to a Daily NK report citing an anonymous source in Pyongyang, allegedly breached the internal systems of the DPRK’s Central Bank and Foreign Trade Bank, diverted foreign currency and state trade funds and moved the money into overseas crypto wallets.
The report could not be independently verified.
Chinese brokers then converted the assets into US dollars and yuan, Daily NK said. Contacts in the border towns of Sinuiju and Hyesan allegedly exchanged the crypto for cash in real time, with the group splitting transfers into small amounts to avoid detection and using encrypted messaging apps, unregistered phones and Chinese wireless equipment.
North Korea’s National Intelligence Service arrested the suspects at a safe house in Pyongyang on July 12 after officials discovered discrepancies in foreign currency payment authorizations and suspicious overseas IP activity, according to the report.
The money laundering route mirrors methods used by North Korean hacking groups to cash out stolen crypto.
