According to South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency, the United States and South Korea have allegedly teamed to create advanced systems meant to track billions in stolen digital assets and counteract cryptocurrency theft connected to North Korea.
The two countries have inked a contract agreeing to produce technologies meant to stop crimes connected to cryptocurrencies. While exact specifics of the project are yet unknown, South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT has promised to assist the cooperation through 2026. With a startling $1.6 billion allegedly taken this year, as revealed by Chainalysis, this collaboration responds to a rise in crypto thefts by North Korean hackers.
Researchers and professionals from both nations—including Korea University and RAND Corporation—will be part in the project. Their efforts will centre on tracking pilfers of money, looking at cybercrime laundering methods, and developing strategies to thwart these attacks including ransomware programmes.
Concurrently, the US keeps acting aggressively to deal with North Korea’s illegal bitcoin-related operations. Two people and a UAE-based corporation were recently subject to penalties by the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for helping to launder money taken through cybercrimes to fund North Korea.
OFAC claims that the people used the UAE-based organisation to turn pilfers of valuables into bitcoin, which they subsequently shipped to North Korea. This emphasises the increasing cooperation among countries to address the complicated and changing problem of crypto-related crimes.
