U.S. officials have raised concern over North Korea's ever increasing cryptocurrency theft that is funding its nuclear and missile programs.

According to Voice of America, Senator Elizabeth Warren noted the scale of Pyongyang's cryptocurrency extortion during a congressional hearing Thursday for Air Force Lt. Gen. Timothy Haugh, the nominee to lead the U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency.

Warren said the North stole a record-breaking one-point-seven billion dollars worth of crypto assets last year, accounting for two thirds of the total stolen from the so-called decentralized finance or DeFI space.

In a February report, an expert panel at the UN Security Council North Korea sanctions committee said the regime's estimated cryptocurrency theft in 2022 was at least 630 million dollars and may even hover above one billion dollars.

Warren said the stolen funds, laundered through Chinese networks, are funneled into its nuclear program, responsible for about half the funding.

During the hearing, Timothy Haugh stated that North Korea continues to adapt to global trends in cybercrime by stealing cryptocurrency to bring in significant amounts of revenue and it is certainly an enabler for the regime to raise funds focused on their military program.

He said the North's cyber program poses a sophisticated threat to the U.S. and its allies and state actors conduct malicious cyber activity to collect intelligence, carry out attacks and generate revenue to bypass sanctions and fund regime goals.

[Photo : YONHAP News]