A new UN expert report indicates that north korean hackers working for the government stole record virtual goods last year.
The South Korean authorities, quoted by the South Korean media, “estimated that state-sponsored DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea, official name] cyberthreat actors stole virtual goods worth about $1,2 billion [€1,1 billion] worldwide. worldwide since 2017, including around 630 million dollars [587 million euros] in 2022 alone“, according to the document, drawn up by a panel of experts.
Hackers have resorted to increasingly sophisticated techniques to gain access to digital networks involved in cyber-financing, and to steal information that could be useful in North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programs from governments, individuals and companies, the report added. which the Associated Press news agency had access to on Tuesday.
The experts noted that, with rising tensions on the Korean peninsula, North Korea continued to violate UN sanctions, produce military-grade nuclear material and improve ballistic missiles, a program that “continued to accelerate dramatically”.
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Last year, North Korea launched at least 73 ballistic missiles and missiles that combine ballistic and guidance technologies, including eight intercontinental ballistic missiles, said the panel, which monitors sanctions against North Korea.
Pyongyang has carried out 42 launches, including the testing of an allegedly new type of ICBM and a new solid fuel ICBM engine, in the last four months of 2022.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has ordered a “exponential increase in the country's nuclear arsenal", in January, and the panel noted that new legislation reinforces the role of tactical nuclear capability, and the "irreversible nature” of the country's nuclear status.
"The ability to carry out an unexpected nuclear strike on any regional or international target, described in the DPRK's new law on nuclear doctrine and progressively in public statements, since 2021, is consistent with the observed production, testing and deployment of tactical and strategic delivery systems“, said the report.
On military matters, the experts said they investigated the "apparent export" of military communications equipment from a North Korean company under UN sanctions to the Ethiopian Ministry of Defense in June 2022.
North Korea may also have illegally traded weapons and related materiel to a range of countries, including sending artillery warheads, infantry rockets and missiles to Russia - an allegation that Pyongyang and Moscow have consistently denied, the panel said. The experts also said they were investigating the alleged sale of weapons by a North Korean company on the UN sanctions list to the Myanmar army through a Myanmar company.
