South Korea blacklists North Korean crypto thieves

The thieves are said to be part of the North Korean hacker group Lazarus.

The South Korean government has blacklisted four North Korean crypto thieves.

The thieves allegedly financially supported “nuclear and missile development”, orchestrating illegal cyber activities and crypto theft with the help of seven institutions.

The seven institutions reportedly participate in cyberattacks, “hacking” and “theft of virtual assets”.

A Ministry of Foreign Affairs notice read: “This is the first independent sanction against North Korea in the cyber sector by the South Korean government.

“It is expected that it will serve as an opportunity to alert the world to the risk of virtual asset trading with North Korea by including the virtual asset wallet address as the identification information of the subject of sanctions.”

Trading crypto with a blacklisted entity is forbidden under regulation without permission from South Korea's Financial Services Commission.

In 2022, crypto theft hit an all-time high in North Korea. The FBI recently confirmed that the hacker group known as Lazarus Group and APT38 were responsible for the $100m crypto sleuth, the Horizon bridge hack, that stole Dai, Ethereum, Binance, Tether and USD coins.

The recent sanctions by the South Korean government are said to target those affiliated with the Lazarus Group.

One name mentioned is Lazarus’s alleged frontman Park Jin-hyeok of the Chosun Expo joint venture company.

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Written by Isabella Aslam

Reporter

Isabella is an experienced writer in B2B and B2C journalism. Alongside crypto, Isabella writes and discusses the topics of relationships and psychology. Isabella holds a first-class degree in music journalism and often interviews electronic artists and DJs.

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