Security News > 2024 > March > That Asian meal you eat on holidays could launder money for North Korea

If you dine out at an Asian restaurant on your next holiday, the United Nations thinks your meal could help North Korea to launder money.

We mention the restaurants because the UN reckons they collectively help the DPRK to launder $700 million a year.

The UN report relies on infosec specialists for its assertions about DPRK infosec activities, and gives them credence by revealing the Security council is investigating "58 suspected cyber attacks by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea on cryptocurrency-related companies between 2017 and 2023, valued at approximately $3 billion, which reportedly help to fund the country's development of weapons of mass destruction."

Seventeen of those attacks took place in 2023 - a year that the UN thinks saw North Korea get its hands on $750 million of other people's crypto.

While that would be a welcome outcome, the report also details myriad other schemes North Korea uses to evade sanctions - including laundering the identity of ships used to bust sanctions, joint ventures companies that help it to move money, and many more besides.

The report runs to 615 pages - such is the extent of the DPRK's sanctions-evading activities.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/25/un_north_korea_report/