"North Korea Seizes 58 Billion Upbit"... First Verification of Virtual Asset North Korea Crimes

[Anchor]
A police investigation found that a North Korean hacking organization was responsible for the theft of coins worth 58 billion won by Upbit, a virtual asset exchange, in 2019.

This is the first time that North Korea has been found to have been responsible for a series of cyberattacks targeting domestic virtual asset exchanges.

I'm a reporter for the department head.

[Reporter]
In November 2019, Upbit, the country's largest virtual asset exchange, announced that 342,000 Ethereum virtual currency in storage had been stolen.

At that time, the damage amounted to 58 billion won at the market price and 1.47 trillion won at the current market price, and the deposit and withdrawal of virtual currency had to be suspended for two weeks.

The criminals hid their tails immediately after the incident, and after five years of extensive tracking by the police, they concluded that North Korea was responsible.

It was confirmed that Lazarus and Andariel, a hacking organization under the North Korean Reconnaissance General Bureau that has hacked the South Korean Supreme Court's computer network, the Korea Institute of Nuclear Research, and the domestic defense industry in all directions, participated.

This is the first time that North Korea has been found to have been responsible for a cyber attack on a domestic virtual asset exchange.

The police confirmed that the North Korean IP address was used in the crime and that the North Korean vocabulary was used, such as "Hurried Work," which means insignificant work.

Half of the stolen virtual assets were exchanged for bitcoin at three sites believed to have been run by North Korea, while the rest flowed to North Korea after being laundered at 51 exchanges abroad.

The specific monetization process and usage have not been confirmed, but police believe it may have been used for military activities based on U.N. reports that North Korea uses funds stolen from virtual asset exchanges to develop nuclear missiles.

Police confirmed that some of the damage was stored on the Swiss exchange and returned 600 million won worth of money to Upbit last month, and are continuing to investigate whether there are any other criminal circumstances.

I'm the manager of YTN.