North Korea Takes Down Elite Hacker Group for Stealing Funds from the Central Bank and Foreign Trade Bank

Huo Xing Finance reports, according to South Korean media Daily NK, that on July 12, North Korean authorities arrested an elite hacking group suspected of infiltrating the internal networks of the Central Bank of North Korea and the Foreign Trade Bank, stealing state trade funds and laundering them through cryptocurrency. Sources indicate that the group’s leader was a veteran from the cyber warfare unit under the Reconnaissance General Bureau, who recruited brilliant IT graduates from Kim Chaek University of Technology and Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, using encrypted communications and wireless devices to carry out the attacks. The stolen funds were split into small amounts and transferred to overseas cryptocurrency wallets, then converted into cash through intermediaries and exchanged for U.S. dollars and other currencies via border regions. After North Korean officials detected anomalies in foreign currency payment approvals and records of overseas IP access, they launched an investigation and ultimately raided a safe house, arresting suspects in the act of money laundering and seizing equipment worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. The case has caused shock among North Korea’s elite and military circles, with senior officials from the Reconnaissance General Bureau and the science and education sector fearing potential fallout. North Korea has long been accused of stealing billions of dollars in cryptocurrency through hacking groups such as Lazarus Group, but this incident is rare in revealing that its own financial system has become a target of internal attacks.