PANews reported on December 26 that according to The Block, the South Korean government announced today that it would impose sanctions on 15 individuals and one entity from North Korea for suspected illegal cyber activities including cryptocurrency theft. The South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that the 15 North Korean individuals belong to Bureau 313 of the Ministry of Machinery Industry of the Workers' Party of Korea. The department has been sanctioned by the United Nations Security Council since 2016 and is responsible for overseeing North Korea's weapons production, including ballistic missile projects. The statement said: "It is well known that North Korean IT personnel are sent to Russia, Southeast Asia, Africa and other places by government-affiliated organizations. They conceal their identities and obtain work orders from IT companies around the world. At the same time, some people are also involved in information theft and cyber attacks."
A representative of the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs revealed that some of the sanctioned individuals stole cryptocurrencies through hacking attacks. However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs refused to disclose the specific identities of those who carried out the cryptocurrency theft. One of the sanctioned individuals is named Kim Cheol-min, who infiltrated IT companies in the United States and Canada as an employee and remitted large amounts of foreign exchange to Pyongyang. The statement also said that South Korea has also imposed sanctions on a North Korean entity that sent a large number of North Korean IT personnel overseas and remitted large amounts of funds to fund the North Korean regime and its military.
