North Korea earns at least US$1 billion annually from its illicit cyber operations, which help fund its military and leader Kim Jong Un’s push for ever more advanced missiles and nuclear capabilities, according to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Pyongyang has become increasingly sophisticated in circumventing security measures, the agency said in its annual report assessing worldwide threats.
The country’s army of hackers is “focused on evading financial sanctions, stealing funds to support its military, and conducting cyber espionage to fill gaps in the regime’s weapons programmes,” the report, released Wednesday, said.
North Korea has for years mobilised IT workers, often based overseas, to launch cyberattacks on banks, businesses and state agencies in South Korea and elsewhere to steal money and classified military and industrial secrets.
“North Korea’s cyber programme — combined with Pyongyang’s use of IT workers with falsified credentials to gain employment with unwitting companies — is sophisticated and agile, and North Korea is capable of conducting espionage, cybercrime, and cyber attacks,” the US assessment said.
The report comes after a study estimated that North Korea likely supplied weapons and troops worth as much as US$14 billion to support Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine.
A rebound in North Korea’s foreign-currency earnings — alongside rising revenue from backing Russia’s war in Ukraine — shows sanctions are losing bite. It also underscores how Pyongyang has built resilient, hard-to-police revenue streams that sustain its economy and weapons programmes despite restrictions.
The report also said that North Korea had “successfully tested” intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the entire US mainland and gained “valuable war-fighting experience and military technology from Russia for participating in combat operations against Ukraine.”
The assessment report says that Pyongyang’s willingness to use its capabilities to attack South Korea and the US poses “significant threats to the US and its allies, particularly South Korea and Japan.”
“North Korea is strongly committed to expanding its nuclear weapons arsenal, as shown by its pace of flight tests and publicised uranium enrichment capabilities,” the report said.
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