Hackers from North Korea stole $147.5 million in cryptocurrency from the HTX exchange in late 2023 and then laundered it through the Tornado Cash platform in March 2024.
North Korean hackers are stealing money from cryptocurrency exchanges
The monitors told the UN Security Council's sanctions committee that they were investigating 97 alleged North Korean cyberattacks on cryptocurrency companies between 2017 and 2024, totalling about $3.6 billion.
Reuters reported this information regarding the UN report.
This includes an attack late last year in which $147.5 million was stolen from the cryptocurrency exchange HTX, which was laundered in March of this year, committee observers said.
According to the observers, in 2024 alone, they discovered "11 thefts of cryptocurrencies worth $54.7 million", adding that many of them "may have been carried out by North Korean IT workers casually employed by small cryptocurrency-related companies".
Observers said North Korean IT professionals working abroad bring "significant income to the country," according to UN member states and private companies.
North Korea has been under UN sanctions since 2006, and the measures have been tightened over the years to cut funding for its ballistic missile and nuclear programs.
North Korea's hacking attacks
Reuters has seen an unpublished UN report on an investigation into cyberattacks.
The commission is investigating 58 suspected North Korean cyberattacks on cryptocurrency-related companies between 2017 and 2023, worth an estimated $3 billion, which reportedly help finance North Korea's development of weapons of mass destruction, the monitors wrote.
Pyongyang has previously denied allegations of hacking or other cyberattacks.
However, North Korean hacking groups under Pyongyang's General Intelligence Directorate are known to have continued to carry out many cyberattacks.
Trends include North Korean attacks on defence companies and supply chains, as well as increasing sharing of infrastructure and tools, observers say.
