The United States sanctions three North Korean entities for "stealing cryptocurrency".

The U.S. Department of the Treasury recently announced that they will impose sanctions on three organizations in North Korea. The reason behind this action is that these three organizations have been using illegal methods to hack a significant amount of cryptocurrency, with reports suggesting that they were attempting to use this fund for North Korea's missile and illicit weapons programs.

According to the announcement made by the U.S. Department of the Treasury on September 13, the U.S. Department of the Treasury has sanctioned the well-known North Korean hacking groups - Lazarus Group, Bluenoroff, and Andariel. The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is monitoring these three groups, and all assets owned or controlled by any of these groups are now blocked. It strictly prohibits U.S. citizens, residents, and U.S.-registered companies from engaging in any business with these three groups, or else the Department of the Treasury will impose penalties.

According to the announcement, these groups stole $571 million worth of cryptocurrency from five exchanges in Asia between 2017 and 2018. There are reports suggesting that these three groups have connections to the North Korean government, possibly even being military intelligence hacker organizations under the Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB).

Therefore, the U.S. strongly suspects whether this indicates North Korea's intention to use this illicitly obtained money for mass destruction weapons, or even nuclear weapons.

Interestingly, this news came just days after North Korea announced its plans to hold a second cryptocurrency-related conference, inviting the crypto community to share information and conduct transactions in Pyongyang in February next year.

A recent report by the United Nations claims that North Korea stole $2 billion in cryptocurrency and fiat in 35 separate attacks across 17 countries, with South Korea's UPbit exchange being a potential major target. Finally, the Deputy Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence urged:

The U.S. and the United Nations will continue to impose sanctions on North Korea and collaborate with international organizations to enhance information security on financial networks to prevent similar incidents from happening again.

Further Reading

• IBM's blockchain-related patents have grown by 300% this year
• California's cannabis industry integrates cryptocurrency payments to facilitate settlements and government tax collection