North Korea Busts Elite Hacker Group for Stealing Funds from Central Bank Using Cryptocurrency on July 12

According to Daily NK, North Korean authorities arrested an elite hacker group on July 12 for infiltrating the central bank and foreign trade bank networks to steal state trading funds and launder money through cryptocurrency. The group's leader was a former operative from the Reconnaissance General Bureau's cyber warfare unit, who recruited talented IT graduates from Kim Chaek University of Technology and Pyongyang University of Science and Technology. Members used encrypted communications and wireless devices to conduct operations.

The stolen funds were split into small amounts and transferred to overseas crypto wallets, then exchanged for cash by intermediaries before being converted to US dollars through border regions. Pyongyang officials discovered anomalies in foreign currency payment approvals and tracked overseas IP access records, leading to the investigation. Authorities conducted a raid on a safe house and arrested suspects in the process of laundering money, seizing equipment worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.