From a UN report it’s more than $50M of digital assets stolen by cyber-attackers between 2021 and mid-2021.
Experts added that these Cyber attacks remain an important revenue source for North Korean government and also for the programmes they are following.
Another report by blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis, claims that North Korea launched at least seven attacks on cryptocurrency platforms that extracted nearly $400m worth of digital assets last year.
Further to this, a 2019 United Nations report estimated that North Korea had already been able to spend at least $2 billion from the proceeds of cybercrime on weapons. North Korea has been banned from carrying out nuclear tests and launching ballistic missiles – but they continue to develop them in violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions.
But cryptocurrencies are not the only target of these cyber attacks.
In 2016, an attempt was partially successful in stealing $1 billion from the Bangladesh central bank.
The UN report also found that the humanitarian situation in North Korea was continuing to worsen. It said this was likely to be the result of the country’s decision to close its borders during the pandemic.
A lack of information from North Korea makes it hard to determine how much suffering was being caused by international sanctions, the report said.