North Korea ‘using crypto, IT workers to dodge UN sanctions’

North Korea is circumventing UN sanctions by using cryptocurrency to trade raw materials and military weaponry, and by deploying large numbers of IT workers abroad to launder funds and generate income for Pyongyang, an international sanctions monitoring group reported.

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Under leader Kim Jong Un, Pyongyang has ramped up cyber operations in recent years, turning hacking into a key source of foreign currency in the face of biting sanctions over its nuclear and weapons programmes.

The Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT) found that North Korea’s sophisticated cyber force had stolen at least US$1.65 billion (S$2.1 billion) from January to September, including US$1.4 billion from crypto exchange Bybit in February.

That was in addition to North Korea’s ill-gotten cryptocurrency gains of US$1.2 billion in 2024, the monitoring group said in a report on Oct 22.

Pyongyang funnels the funds into “the unlawful development of its WMD (weapon of mass destruction) and ballistic missile programmes”, it said.