"North Korea Uses Russian Exchanges for Cryptocurrency Money Laundering... Strong Underground World Partnership"

Over 450 Billion Won Embezzled by Q3 This Year
North Korea Reconnaissance General Bureau-Linked Group 'Lazarus' Responsible

An analysis has emerged that hacking groups linked to North Korea are significantly increasing their use of Russian exchanges to launder virtual currencies stolen from cryptocurrency exchanges worldwide. Amid the recent visit of North Korean State Affairs Commission Chairman Kim Jong-un to Russia and the summit talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, suspicions are being raised that Russia may be formally collaborating with North Korea’s cyber security threat actors as arms trade and technology exchanges between the two countries expand.

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

On the 19th (local time), Chainalysis, a U.S.-based blockchain specialist company, reported on its blog that hacking groups linked to North Korea transferred approximately $21.9 million (about 29.1 billion KRW) worth of virtual currency stolen last year from the U.S. blockchain company Harmony to Russian cryptocurrency exchanges.

According to Chainalysis, North Korean hacking groups have been using various Russian cryptocurrency exchange services for money laundering since 2021. Chainalysis pointed out, "This indicates that North Korea and Russia have already been expanding their partnership in the cyber underground world," adding, "Since Russia is already isolated from most international organizations, recovering funds stolen by North Korea and sent to Russian exchanges is nearly impossible."

Chainalysis tallied that the virtual currency stolen by North Korean hacking groups reached $340.4 million by the third quarter of this year. Last year, they stole funds amounting to $1.65 billion, approximately 2.2 trillion KRW, accounting for more than 80% of the global illegal cryptocurrency theft amount.

Earlier, in June, there were also reports suggesting that virtual currency funds stolen by North Korea through hacking were moved to Russian exchanges. Blockchain data analytics firm Elliptic revealed in a June report that North Korean hacking groups hacked the Estonia-based cryptocurrency wallet service 'Atomic Wallet,' stole assets, and then transferred them to the Russian cryptocurrency exchange Garantex.

Meanwhile, North Korea is known to have as many as 50,000 personnel related to hacking and cyber security, and it commands numerous affiliated hacker groups operating worldwide. In particular, the hacking group ‘Lazarus,’ suspected of being linked to North Korea’s Reconnaissance General Bureau, is known to lead cryptocurrency thefts. U.S. and Western intelligence agencies report that most of the virtual currency funds stolen by North Korean hacking groups are being diverted to finance North Korea’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile production.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.