Current Events > UN report reveals N Korea funding their missile program with stolen crypto

(+) Yeah! (+)

Although there have been previous reports speculating that dictatorships have been using crypto to bypass sanctions, this is probably the most concrete report I've seen around a specific use case.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-60281129

Between 2020 and mid-2021 cyber-attackers stole more than $50m (37m) of digital assets, investigators found.

Such attacks are an "important revenue source" for Pyongyang's nuclear and ballistic missile programme, they said.

The report also referenced a study published last month by the security firm Chainalysis that suggested North Korean cyberattacks could have netted as much as $400m worth of digital assets last year.

And in 2019, the UN reported that North Korea had accumulated an estimated $2bn for its weapons of mass destruction programmes by using sophisticated cyber-attacks.

However the UN report says that despite crippling sanctions, North Korea has been able to continue developing its nuclear and ballistic missile infrastructure.

The sanctions monitors said there had been a "marked acceleration" of missile testing by Pyongyang.

Reason 97536 that crypto is garbage