North Korea using crypto, IT workers to dodge UN curbs: report

SEOUL:

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.

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 $1.65 billion from January to September 2025, including $1.4 billion from crypto exchange Bybit in February.

That was in addition to North Korea's ill-gotten cryptocurrency gains of $1.2 billion in 2024, the monitoring group said in a report Wednesday.

Pyongyang funnels the funds into "the unlawful development of its WMD (weapons of mass destruction) and ballistic missile programs", it said.

The report's authors found that North Korean officials used a type of cryptocurrency called stablecoin "for procurement-related transactions, including the sale and transfer of military equipment and raw materials such as copper, which is used in munitions production".

The country further evaded UN sanctions by sending IT workers to at least eight countries.

Most went to China, but others were dispatched to Russia, Laos, Cambodia, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea, Nigeria and Tanzania.