North Korea stole more cryptocurrency assets in 2022 than in any other year and targeted the networks of foreign aerospace and defense companies, according to a currently confidential United Nations report seen .
North Korea stole a record amount of cryptocurrency assets in 2022, according to a draft United Nations report obtained by Nikkei, another sign of how the isolated country is circumventing international sanctions to raise funds.
The report, compiled by a U.N. Security Council panel, details that North Korean actors used increasingly sophisticated techniques to gain access to digital networks involved in cyber finance and steal information of potential value, including for weapons programs. This led to a higher value of cryptocurrency assets being stolen by North Korea in 2022 than in any previous year, according to the report.
The panel also investigated the alleged export of North Korean military communications equipment and began an investigation into reports of ammunition exports.
In the report, the panel accuses North Korea of continuing the production of nuclear fissile materials. It also says North Korea carried out tests of at least 73 ballistic missiles and missiles combining ballistic and guidance technologies, including eight intercontinental ballistic missiles.
The hermit nation “openly describes many of the missile launches as ‘ballistic,’ in explicit violation of the United Nations sanctions regime,” the report said.
The panel also noted that illicit ship-to-ship imports of cargo in North Korean territorial waters continue and that prohibited ship-to-ship exports of North Korean coal persist.
Pyongyang escalated provocations by launching a record number of missiles in 2022, including one that flew over Japan for the first time in five years. The report, which covers activities through 2022, is nonbinding but may prompt the Security Council or member nations to call for stronger sanctions.
