The government of South Korea plans to introduce a bill to track and freeze North Korea–linked cryptocurrency assets. This is reported by Korea JoongAng Daily, citing sources.
The legislation aims to prevent funding for Pyongyang’s weapons programmes and is the result of ten months of inter-ministerial consultations.
According to insiders, an early version of the bill was sent back for revision at the direction of President Yoon Suk Yeol. The president urged the inclusion of “practical measures to strengthen national security”.
One of the sources told the newspaper that, in the president’s view, the country’s cyber-defence systems need an “urgent overhaul”, as the previous administration did not counter North Korean hackers.
The latest version of the bill contains measures to “track and neutralise virtual coins and other cryptocurrency assets stolen from Pyongyang through hacks”.
The Wall Street Journal estimated at $3 billion. Half of that sum went to financing a programme to develop ballistic missiles.
According to TRM Labs, since 2018 North Korean criminal groups have stolen digital assets for a total of $2 billion.