"North Korea Behind It"... "Helpless" as 8 Trillion Won Vanishes

[Anchor]

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has pointed to North Korea as the mastermind behind a massive hacking incident at Binance, the world's largest virtual asset exchange. Even after detecting meticulous money laundering patterns following the hack, Binance was reportedly left watching helplessly in terror.

Reporter Kim Minpyo.

[Reporter]

On October 31 local time, the U.S. FBI stated that North Korea was behind the theft of more than 6 billion dollars in cryptocurrency from the world's largest virtual asset exchange, Binance.

This marks an official confirmation of private analyses that had pointed the finger at North Korea since the early stages of the incident.

The FBI specifically named the North Korean hacking group TraderTraitor as the perpetrator.

TraderTraitor is known as an elite organization created under North Korea's intelligence agency approximately 10 years ago with the goal of stealing virtual assets.

The FBI stated it has detected signs of them converting the stolen assets primarily into Ethereum, and anticipates further money laundering of this nature.

[Ari Redbord / Crypto Expert : North Korea wants to convert these funds from cryptocurrency to fiat as quickly as possible to use them to secure weapons or purchase supplies.]

The North Korean hackers were also so meticulous that they immediately swapped the stolen cryptocurrency into assets that could not be frozen, escaping with 2.4 billion dollars, or approximately 3 trillion won worth.

The Wall Street Journal reported that even after recognizing the hack, Binance had no choice but to watch in terror as assets drained from accounts.

Binance stated that it did not pass the hacking losses onto its customers, covering 95 percent of the losses with internal funds and gradually resuming withdrawals for major cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and BNB.

Regarding the FBI's announcement, U.S. President Trump stated, "If North Korea is behind this, I will discuss the matter with North Korea."

(Video Editing: Jung Yong-hwa)

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