Hacking Virtual Assets, North Korea's Reconnaissance General Bureau is the main culprit..."Nuclear and Missile Money Line"

Lazarus, Kim Su-ki, a hacking group belonging to North Korea's Reconnaissance General Bureau
It's the first time to take over virtual assets in Korea...notoriously abroad
Bangladesh State Bank Hacks..."Stole 4 trillion won".

[Anchor]
This is the first time it has been confirmed that a North Korean hacking organization has taken over a South Korean virtual asset exchange, but it is already notorious overseas.

It is evaluated that the virtual assets that were robbed under the leadership of the Reconnaissance General Bureau are a key source of money for North Korea's nuclear and missile development through laundering.

I'm reporter Lee Jong Won.

[Reporter]
The most recent domestic damage confirmed by North Korea's leading hacking organization Lazarus is the first hacking of the judiciary's computer network that occurred last year.

It took a huge amount of court data, more than a thousand gigabytes, and included thousands of sensitive personal information.Lazarus, who appears every time a North Korean hack occurs with

{Kim Su-ki', is a member of the North Korean Reconnaissance General Bureau, which oversees operations against the South and overseas.

This is the first time it has been confirmed that it has even been robbed of a domestic virtual asset exchange, but it is already notorious in the international community.

In the past, there were reports that they attempted to steal $1 billion by hacking Bangladesh's state-run bank, and actually stole nearly 4 trillion won in virtual currency over two years.

[Hwang Joon-guk / Ambassador to the United Nations (November last year): North Korea is engaged in malicious cyber activities such as hacking and exploitation in the virtual currency market to finance its weapons of mass destruction program.]

In July, India's largest virtual asset exchange was attacked from outside and suffered more than $200 million in damage, and Lazarus was also identified as the culprit at the time.

Earlier in March, a U.N.-affiliated organization reported that North Korea cyberattacked virtual asset-related companies in the past eight years and stole an estimated $3 billion.

South Korean and U.S. authorities say that the funds raised by such international cybercrime are a source of money for North Korea's advancement of nuclear missiles, which is under sanctions against North Korea.

[Cho Han-beom / Senior Researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification]: There is virtually no means for North Korea to secure foreign currency except for North Korean workers and cybercrime, which is estimated to be 100,000 to 200,000 now.]

Experts advise that North Korea's attempts to steal hacking are expected to increase despite criticism and surveillance from the international community, and that it needs to focus on blocking hacking attempts as well as preventing them from becoming cash.

I'm YTN's Lee Jong Won.

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video: Ma Young-hoo
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