North Korean Hackers Caught Laundering Regime Funds via Crypto

North Korean authorities have reportedly arrested a group of elite state-trained hackers accused of stealing and laundering their own regime's funds via cryptocurrency. The hackers, led by former members of a cyber warfare unit under the Reconnaissance and Intelligence General Bureau, infiltrated the internal networks of North Korea's Chosun Central Bank and Foreign Trade Bank.

According to an anonymous source inside Pyongyang, the group was rounded up on July 12 after an internal investigation traced suspicious cryptocurrency transactions to a safe house in Pyongyang. The hackers relied on military-grade hacking skills, encrypted communications, and Chinese wireless equipment to pull off the feat.

The stolen funds were allegedly converted into cash by brokers in China, which was then exchanged for fiat currencies by contacts operating in North Korea's border regions.