North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un is using a ''hacker army'' to fund the nation's nuclear weapons program and sustain its foundering economy, The Sun reported on Thursday.
''North Korea's cyber program poses a growing espionage, theft, and attack threat,'' the 2021 Annual Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community read.
''North Korea has conducted cyber theft against financial institutions and cryptocurrency exchanges worldwide, potentially stealing hundreds of millions of dollars, probably to fund government priorities, such as its nuclear and missile programs.''
The cybercrimes committed under the Kim Jong Un regime included targeting banks worldwide, stealing defense secrets, and laundering cryptocurrency, according to a Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) report.
North Korea has obtained at least $2.3 billion through illegal cyber activity, according to The Sun. Almost $316.4 million of that figure came from the cryptocurrency malware AppleJeus, allegedly stealing money users invest.
Theft through cybercrime accounted for about 8% of North Korea's estimated economy in 2020, Bloomberg attributed the Bank of Korea as reporting.
The cybercrimes have provided a lifeline for the country's struggling economy, which is hobbled by sanctions due to its aggressive nuclear program, Bloomberg reported.
Jenny Jun, a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council's Cyber Statecraft Initiative, said North Korea ''is not afraid to be brazen and destructive in order to achieve the task at hand.''
''The fight against North Korea's illicit activities is like a Whac-A-Mole game — cracking down will lead to displacement rather than cause [the regime] to stop or focus on legitimate economic activity,'' she added.
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