According to an unpublished United Nations study reviewed by Reuters on Thursday, North Korea kept building nuclear weapons and generating nuclear fissile material in 2023 while avoiding sanctions intended to cut off revenue for Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
Independent sanctions monitors reported to a U.N. Security Council committee that “DPRK (North Korean) hackers reportedly continued to successfully target cyber cryptocurrency and other financial exchanges worldwide” following a record-breaking level of cyber thefts in 2022, estimated at $1.7 billion.
North Korea has been charged with employing cyberattacks to help finance its nuclear and missile programs, according to the monitors, who submit reports to the council twice a year. Allegations of hacking or other cyberattacks have been refuted by North Korea.
Requests for comment on the story were not immediately answered by the North Korean delegation to the UN in New York.
Kim Jong Un, the leader of North Korea, changed the military’s top general earlier on Thursday and demanded more war preparations, a rise in weapon manufacturing, and an expansion of military exercises, according to official media KCNA.
Since 2006, North Korea has been subject to U.N. sanctions because of its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. Over the years, such sanctions have been unanimously tightened, but the 15-member council is now at a standstill because China and Russia want them to be loosened in order to persuade Pyongyang to resume disarmament negotiations.
The Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB), North Korea’s main foreign intelligence organization, was the target of hackers who, according to the U.N. sanctions monitors, “continued to use increasingly sophisticated cyber techniques to steal funds and information.”
“Companies in the crypto-currency, defense, energy, and health sectors were targeted in particular,” they said in the executive summary of the study, which will be released in the next weeks. The DPRK continues to use the global financial system and conduct illegal financial activities.
Continued illegal coal shipments were noted by the observers, as well as “a rich variety of sanctions evasion measures deployed by vessels delivering refined petroleum products to DPRK.” 14 additional boats were also purchased by North Korea in breach of restrictions.
“Despite the country’s mostly closed borders, trade volumes grew, primarily due to the restart of train activity. The monitors reported that a wide range of imported products had rapidly returned, and they continued to look into smuggling of high-end goods.
The observers said that they are looking into suspected North Korean sales of weapons and ammunition as well as “possible cases of sales by DPRK of arms or other types of military support to member states.”
