North Korea steals over $300 million to support weapons development in 2020: UN panel

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un / Yonhap

North Korea continued to blatantly violated U.N. Security Council resolutions last year, stealing more than US$300 million in virtual assets to support its illegal development of weapons of mass destruction, a U.N. report said Wednesday.

The impoverished country also continued to illicitly import oil, several times the amount allowed under U.N. Security Council resolutions, according to the report from a panel of experts under the U.N. Security Council committee on North Korea sanctions.

"The Panel continues to assess that cyberactors linked to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea continued to conduct operations against financial institutions and virtual currency exchange houses in 2020 to generate revenue to support its weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programmes," the report said.

The report added one U.N. member country has estimated the value of virtual assets stolen by North Korea between 2019 and November 2020 to be US$316.4 million.

The panel of experts also said some of the "malicious cyberactivities" of the North were led by the Reconnaissance General Bureau, the North's military intelligence agency.

"In August 2020, the United States identified a new cyberthreat group, 'BeagleBoyz,' an element of the Reconnaissance General Bureau that has likely been active since 2014, and attributed the 2016 heist of Bangladesh Bank to this group in a public cybersecurity threat alert," the report said.

It said the U.S. suspects the North Korean cyberthreat group to have attempted to steal nearly $2 billion since 2015.

The panel also pointed to the North's continued violation of the 500,000-barrel cap on oil imports, noting the amount of illicit shipments to North Korea exceeded the limit by "several times," while it may also have become "larger" from the previous reporting period.

"According to imagery, data and calculations received from a Member State covering the period from 1 January to 30 September, in 2020 these illicit shipments exceeded the annual aggregate 500,000-barrel cap by several times," it said.

"Several Member States assessed that the importation of oil-related products to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea possibly became larger in volume in 2020 due in part to the acquisition of new and larger third country-flagged vessels," the report added.

North Korea also continued to develop and upgrade its weapons of mass destruction.

"In addition, it produced fissile material, maintained nuclear facilities and upgraded its ballistic missile infrastructure. The country continued to seek material and technology for these programs from overseas," the report said.

North Korea has maintained a self-imposed moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile testing, despite declaring in early 2020 that it is no longer bound by such restrictions.

The North, however, launched what appeared to be two short-range ballistic missiles into the East Sea last Sunday, possibly resuming its short-range ballistic missile launches after a yearlong hiatus. (Yonhap)

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