Anchor: Authorities say North Korea was behind the 2019 theft of 58 billion won, or around 42 million U.S. dollars, in cryptocurrency from a South Korean virtual asset exchange. The National Office of Investigation said Thursday that two North Korean hacking groups affiliated with the regime’s Reconnaissance General Bureau, Lazarus and Andariel, were involved in the crime.
Choi You Sun has more.
 
Report: In November 2019, 342-thousand ethereum tokens were stolen from the South Korean virtual asset exchange Upbit.
 
The National Office of Investigation said Thursday that two North Korean hacking groups affiliated with the regime’s Reconnaissance General Bureau, Lazarus and Andariel, were involved in the crime.

The conclusion was based on an analysis of a North Korean IP address, the flow of cryptocurrency, the use of Korean-language terms used in the North, and documents obtained in coordination with the FBI in the United States.

Fifty-seven percent of the stolen ethereum tokens were converted to bitcoins at two-point-five percent lower than the market price, while the rest were transferred to 51 overseas exchanges for laundering.

The police verified in October 2020 that some of the stolen assets that were converted to bitcoins were being stored at a virtual exchange in Switzerland.

Last month, four-point-eight bitcoins worth around 600 million won were retrieved from the Swiss exchange and returned to Upbit.

Although this is the first verified theft from a South Korean virtual exchange orchestrated by North Korea, the regime’s hacking groups are notorious around the world for cybertheft.

Lazarus was named as the culprit behind an attack on India’s biggest virtual exchange in July, which cost more than 200 million dollars.

Around the same time, a virtual exchange in Japan lost 35 million dollars to a theft believed to have been carried out by the same hacking group.

TRM Labs, a global blockchain research company, said North Korea was behind about a third of all financial losses from cyberattacks on virtual assets last year.

Amid international sanctions blocking Pyongyang’s access to foreign currency through overseas labor and trade, Seoul and Washington say the regime has resorted to cybercrime to fund its nuclear and missile programs.
Choi You Sun, KBS World Radio News.