The United Nations has accused North Korea of stealing $281 million worth of crypto from an exchange in September 2020. According to a preliminary United Nations inquiry, the theft of $281 million worth of crypto from an exchange last year, suggests that North Korea is using the proceeds from the hack to fund its nuclear weapons programme.
According to Reuters, the findings from a “confidential report” “strongly suggests” links between the hack’s perpetrators and North Korea. The report accuses North Korea of using stolen funds to support its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes, thereby circumventing sanctions.
Even though the report failed to name the victim of the attack, analysts are pointing their fingers at the Seychelles-based digital currency exchange, KuCoin, who fell victim to one of the largest crypto exchange hacks. In September 2020, KuCoin reported the theft of around $275 million in Bitcoin and various other cryptocurrencies. As there were no other significant hacks during this time period, and it is extremely likely that the report is referring to the KuCoin hack.
According to KuCoin’s CEO, the hackers managed to gain access to the private keys to the exchange’s hot wallets. The exchange had managed to recover a total of $204 million worth of the stolen funds. The hackers made off with around $70 million worth of crypto.
Feature image by Crypto Somniac from fickr
