North Korea appears to be using pirated funds to finance its new nuclear adventures. This is according to a new investigation involving all the intrigues of US intelligence, South Korean politicians and a former Ethereum developer now residing in a US prison.
International investigators say North Korea stole "hundreds of millions of dollars in digital assets" to develop a nuclear weapons program. In parallel, in South Korean political circles, politicians are accused of having ties to cryptocurrency developer Virgil Griffith. Griffith is a former Ethereum developer. He was sentenced to more than five years in a US prison for helping North Korea escape sanctions.
The development comes as Pyongyang says its latest missile launch is a "simulation" of a possible future attack on South Korea. Although the missile launch did not involve nuclear weapons, North Korea is set to conduct its first nuclear weapons tests in five years. This is scheduled for next week.
According to intelligence reports from South Korea and the US, the project is mainly financed with stolen cryptocurrencies.
North Korean hackers to finance the event
Yonhap is the UN Security Council's North Korea sanctions committee. They have blamed North Korean hacker groups like Lazarus for attacking Harmony and Ronin Bridge. These hacks were a resounding success and gave the bad guys millions of dollars in cryptocurrency.
The committee said the North Korean hackers used a "social engineering trick". Hackers infiltrate systems and go after individual victims, trying to forcibly expose project vulnerabilities.
Nuclear program, financing and South Korean politicians
According to a Numbers Today article, the cryptocurrency hacking scandal is sparking a showdown between South Korea's major political parties, the Democratic Party and the People's Power Party. The latter controls the executive power.
Attorney General Han Dong-hoon recently visited the United States to investigate the connection between the Democratic Party and Virgil Griffith. Democrats say People Power officials are trying to make a connection between Virgil Griffith and Democratic Party Chairman Lee Jae-myung. However, Virgil Griffith is known to have been in contact in South Korea. Griffiths is believed to have worked with former Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon. Park Gunhye committed suicide two years ago.
Documents have reportedly surfaced showing that South Korean politicians are planning to “build an Ethereum server research facility in North Korea.”