Although North Korea has long been known for firebrand rhetoric and provocative actions that have increased tensions with neighboring states, the secretive nation has surprisingly found itself at the center of a cryptocurrency revolution, largely out of necessity. There are widespread rumors that North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un is behind some of the wild price swings of bitcoin and other virtual currencies
Years of crippling economic sanctions and pressure from proximal governments have forced North Korea to develop creative strategies for circumventing financial restrictions to further military hardware acquisition and other power-play capital. In its efforts to build an effective deterrent to what it perceives as external threats to its existence, North Korea has landed on a relatively straightforward path to overcoming these onerous restrictions: bitcoin.
The creative strategies employed by North Korea to leverage cryptocurrency came to the fore in February 2021 when federal authorities announced that "three North Korean computer programmers have been indicted for conducting a series of cyberattacks to attempt to steal and extort more than $1.3 billion in cash and cryptocurrency from financial institutions and companies."
According to the Department of Justice, the programmers were part of a North Korean military intelligence agency with a history of nefarious dabblings. The same attachers had attempted to create and market a fraudulent blockchain platform, called the Marine Chain Token, in 2017 and 2018
"The World's Leading Bank Robbers"
The Marine Chain Token allowed investors to buy ownership interests in marine shipping vessels with blockchain technology and, according to the Department of Justice, "allowed North Korea to secretly obtain funds from investors, control interests in marine shipping vessels, and evade U.S. sanctions.”
One of the hackers had been previously charged in 2018 with a cyberattack on Sony Pictures using ransomware known as WannaCry. In addition, the hackers are accused of targeting hundreds of cryptocurrency companies and stealing tens of millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency.1
In September 2018, the hackers stole $11.8 million from a New York financial services firm using a malicious CryptoNeuro Trader application.1
North Korea's criminal cryptocurrency activities have been so egregious they prompted Assistant Attorney General John Demers of the Justice Department’s National Security Division to dub the hackers "the world's leading bank robbers" who use "keyboards rather than guns."1
Bitcoin Price
The bitcoin price has remained volatile, even as an increasing number of corporations grow comfortable accepting it both as tender and as a store of value and medium of exchange.
According to CNBC, Wall Street giants like Bank of New York Mellon announced that they were considering allowing the banking of bitcoin and treating the currency like U.S. Treasury bonds and stocks. Paypal and Mastercard are now supporting cryptocurrencies, and the car manufacturer Tesla is planning to do so.23
Most of the earliest press that bitcoin received focused on its illicit use in black market activities and transactions, an idea that was confirmed by the prosecution of Silk Road’s founders.4 Furthermore, tools like tumbling and local bitcoins make it even more difficult to trace transactions in certain cases.
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