North Korea to tackle bitcoin to offset UN sanctions | VOP NEWS

UNITED STATES (VOP TODAY NEWS) — In search of new ways to circumvent the international sanctions against it, North Korea has begun to empty the electronic wallets of holders of cryptocurrencies.

Employees of South Korean antivirus companies reported that hackers acting on orders from North Korean authorities had already tried to hack crypto-purses, but this was the first time they tried to extort funds from accounts, writes the daily Kommersant.

In addition, Pyongyang allegedly transhipped illegal oil at sea and attempted to smuggle foreign currency. A few days ago, the Vladivostok customs arrested a North Korean citizen trying to cross the border with $ 192,000 in a box of shoes.

“The peculiarity of cryptocurrencies is that if your bitcoins have been stolen, you can not complain to anyone. That’s why hackers are increasingly targeting them, “said Kwon Seok-chul, director of Cuvepia.

According to the expert, hackers send infected e-mails to owners of wallets that launch a virus that transmits control of the computer to the perpetrator.

In early November, the South Korean Inksit Group reported that North Korean gang members of the Lazarus Group were actively stealing funds from South Korean crypto-purses by hacking the computers of their employees. North Korean pirates are also suspected of being behind the infamous Interstellar Coin and Marine Chain, ICO (fundraising) whose participants lost tens of thousands of dollars. Pyongyang is pressured to commit such acts after being disconnected from the SWIFT interbank communication system and international financial transactions.

In addition to the theft of funds from cryptocurrency users, North Korea has reportedly increased its imports of smuggled oil in recent months, say the Wall Street Journal’s interlocutors with the UN. North Korean ships are constantly testing new methods to circumvent international sanctions, which prohibit the country from trading with the outside world beyond the established limit – which is very low.

For example, sources in the US daily report that North Korean ships pretend to be ships from other countries, operate without transponders, and actively transshipped products from other ships at sea, without entering the port. On the official platforms of the UN, the US does not.

Apart from the sophisticated methods of circumvention of sanctions, North Korea would also use rather traditional means. On Nov. 26, the Vladivostok Customs arrested a North Korean who was attempting to fly to Pyongyang with 192,000 unreported dollars. He had tried to cross the green corridor with a shoe box containing this money.

The magazine Prima Media reports that in early October, the customs had arrested another North Korean trying to cross the border with nearly $ 180,000. The two offenders risk imprisonment and a fine fifteen times higher than the undeclared amount.

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