Last month, a UN report claimed North Korea had hacked banks and cryptocurrency exchanges. Now, the country denies it.
The report claimed that Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programmes had been given a $2bn boost by illegally breaching these institutions. Part of the reason, according to the report, was that attacks on cryptocurrencies are harder to track.
Now, a spokesperson from the National Coordination Committee of the DPRK for Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism has issued a statement. This statement has been read out on North Korea’s state-run KCNA news agency, according to Bitcoinist.
It vehemently denied the allegations and stated that they were fabricated “ill-hearted rumours” spread by the US “and other hostile forces” with the aim of “tarnishing the image” of the country.
The statement continued, “The fabrication of such a sheer lie by the ringleaders of cyber crime and all other crimes is quite an absurd act aimed at re-enacting the same old trick as the Hitler fascist propagandists used to cling to, often saying ‘Tell a lie a hundred times and it will pass as a truth.’”
Cryptocurrencies have faced criticism for a long while due to the anonymity digital currencies enjoy. Echoing these concerns, a UN official said at the end of August that they made it extremely difficult to fight abuse of children, money laundering and terrorism funding.
