Japan, the United States and South Korea have pledged to work together to stop North Korea's efforts to raise funds through illegal activities in cyberspace such as cryptocurrency theft, warning the money could be used for its military activities.
The three governments will "strive together to prevent thefts, including from private industry, by the DPRK and to recover stolen funds with the ultimate goal of denying the DPRK illicit revenue for its unlawful weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs," they said in a joint statement.
DPRK is the acronym for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North Korea's official name.
"The DPRK's cyber program threatens our three countries and the broader international community and, in particular, poses a significant threat to the integrity and stability of the international financial system," the three nations added.
The statement said the theft of digital assets worth $308 million from Tokyo-based cryptocurrency exchange DMM Bitcoin Co in May 2024 was among the "numerous cybercrime campaigns" conducted by North Korean state-sponsored hacking group Lazarus and others linked to the nation.
It also called on private firms in related industries to become better informed about cyber threat mitigation measures, including taking steps to "mitigate the risk of inadvertently hiring DPRK IT workers."
Japan, the United States and South Korea have been ramping up their collaboration not only in the security field but also in economic security, cutting-edge technology and other areas in recent years.
© KYODO
3 Comments
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Samit Basu
Korea will drop out of this arrangement in May, after Lee Jae Myung swears in.
Peter Neil
until you ditch computers on networks, it’ll never happen. we’re slaves to computers now.
and the internet never fulfilled the promise of more learned and informed people.
OssanAmerica
North Korea is such a great neighbor to have.