North Korea Denies 8 Trillion Won Binance Hack; Ministry of Unification Yet to Decide on Additional Sanctions

[Financial News] On the 3rd, North Korea denied responsibility for a virtual asset hacking incident of an unprecedented scale, involving assets worth about 8.4 trillion won. The denial came three days after the U.S. FBI identified a North Korea-linked group as responsible for the hack at Binance, the world’s largest virtual asset exchange. The Ministry of Unification (MOU) took a cautious stance on imposing additional sanctions on North Korea in connection with the incident.
Kim Yo Jong, head of the General Affairs Department of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK), said in a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) that day, “The United States is clearly committing a grave political provocation against us by misleading international public opinion into thinking that cyber fraud around the world is all our doing.” It is rare for Kim to personally come forward and directly deny involvement in a virtual asset hack.
Kim also said, “The international community needs to once again recall that last year, as soon as the current U.S. administration took office, it announced that it would confiscate illegally stolen cryptocurrency assets and build them up as a strategic reserve fund for the country.” She added, “If the large sums of cryptocurrency said to have been stolen were recovered, considering who would receive them in their entirety might provide a clue as to who was behind this hacking incident.”
She went on to say, “On this occasion, we once again confirmed Washington’s hostile stance toward North Korea, and we are closely watching the United States’ continued attempts to provoke our country in various ways.”
The MOU said that day that it was not yet discussing additional sanctions on North Korea, which has been identified as responsible for the Binance virtual asset hack.
Asked by reporters whether it agreed with the U.S. investigative authorities’ announcement that North Korea was behind the Binance hacking attack, an MOU official said, “No information has been shared between the FBI and our relevant agencies,” stopping short of endorsing the claim.
The official added, regarding whether to impose additional sanctions on North Korea, “It is appropriate to review response measures with the relevant ministries based on an assessment of the situation,” but added, “There is no need to discuss that issue at this point.”
[email protected] Kim Kyung-soo Reporter