...hereditary Communist monarchy distinguished by its truculence and periodic acts of violence. Distinguishing features include Songun (Army First) policy, which involves feeding the army before anyone but the Dear Leadership, and Juche, which is Kim Jong Il's personal interpretation of Marxism-Leninism, which he told everybody was brilliant. In 1950 the industrialized North invaded agrarian South Korea. Twenty-one countries of the United Nations eventually contributed to the UN force opposing the invasion, with the United States providing around 90% of the military personnel. Seventy years later the economic results are in and it doesn't look good for Juche...has generated an estimated $2 billion for its weapons of mass destruction programs using "widespread and increasingly sophisticated" cyber attacks to steal from banks and cryptocurrency exchanges, according to a confidential UN report seen by Rooters on Monday.
Pyongyang also "continued to enhance its nuclear and missile programmes although it did not conduct a nuclear test or ICBM (Intercontinental Ballistic Missile) launch," said the report to the UN Security Council North Korea sanctions committee by independent experts monitoring compliance over six months.
The North Korean mission to the United Nations
...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks...
did not respond to a request for comment on the report, which was submitted to the Security Council committee last week.
The experts said North Korea "used cyberspace to launch increasingly sophisticated attacks to steal funds from financial institutions and cryptocurrency exchanges to generate income." They also used cyberspace to launder the stolen money, the report said.
"Democratic People's Republic of Korea cyber actors, many operating under the direction of the Reconnaissance General Bureau, raise money for its WMD (weapons of mass destruction) programmes, with total proceeds to date estimated at up to two billion US dollars," the report said.
North Korea is formally known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). The Reconnaissance General Bureau is a top North Korean military intelligence agency.
The UN experts said North Korea's attacks against cryptocurrency exchanges allowed it "to generate income in ways that are harder to trace and subject to less government oversight and regulation than the traditional banking sector."
The Security Council has unanimously imposed sanctions on North Korea since 2006 in a bid to choke off funding for Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs. The Council has banned exports including coal, iron, lead, textiles and seafood, and capped imports of crude oil and refined petroleum products.
The UN experts said that despite the diplomatic efforts, their "investigations show continued violations" of UN sanctions.
"For example, the DPRK continued to violate sanctions through ongoing illicit ship-to-ship transfers and procurement of WMD-related items and luxury goods," the UN report said.