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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Dan Sabbagh Defence and security editor

HISTORICAL FACTS: How crypto hacking funds isolated north koreas nuclear programme - Caught on Camera

Students at a North Korean military school in uniform work on computer monitors
At university, some of the best students are recruited into hacker groups, operating under the auspices of the country’s Reconnaissance General Bureau spy agency. Photograph: AP

North Korea plays by its own rules. The isolated, secretive and autocratic country is largely cut off from the world’s economic system – but when it comes to generating foreign earnings it relies on some of the world’s most sophisticated hacking.

Experts, such as TRM Labs, quickly attributed the extraordinary $6.3bn (£4.7bn) Binance cryptocurrency theft to TraderTraitor, an elite North Korean hacking unit that has also been known as the Lazarus Group. Though the link may not be proven yet, the pattern of behaviour is familiar.

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