"North Korea Is Behind It": After U.S. Accusation, Kim Yo-jong Makes Loaded Remark

[Anchor]

Two days after the United States officially identified North Korea as being behind a cryptocurrency heist worth around 8 trillion won, North Korea has issued a response. Kim Yo-jong personally stepped forward to dismiss the claim as absurd, groundless rumors, while also making a loaded remark toward the U.S. that there are matters it needs to reconsider.

Reporter Kim Ayeong has the story.

[Reporter]

This statement was released early this morning (November 3) by Kim Yo-jong, director of the General Affairs Department of North Korea's Workers' Party.

She directly refuted the announcement by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that North Korea was behind the hacking of cryptocurrency exchange Binance.

Calling the U.S. claim absurd nonsense aimed at smearing North Korea as a cybercrime state, she defined it as a grave political provocation.

She also cited the strategic reserve policy decided by the Trump administration last year to be established by seizing criminals' cryptocurrency, claiming that examining who ultimately receives the massive sums of cryptocurrency would provide a clue as to who is behind the hack.

In effect, she was asking whether the real mastermind is the United States.

Normally, when hacking incidents occur, North Korea's Foreign Ministry has stepped forward to deny allegations of involvement.

Kim Yo-jong, who oversees policy toward the U.S., breaking precedent to respond directly is interpreted as taking into account the international repercussions of this incident.

At the end of the statement, she included a pointed phrase warning that there will be issues to reconsider in various aspects regarding the utterly offensive, hostile attitude of the U.S.

[Kim Yong-hyun / Director of the Institute of North Korean Studies at Dongguk University: By showing that (North Korea-U.S. relations) could be adversely affected depending on how the U.S. responds, the intention is to preemptively deter U.S. pressure against North Korea.]

However, given that she did not treat a shift in policy toward the U.S. as a fait accompli and refrained from harsh invective, observers assess that she calibrated her tone.

[Park Won-gon / Professor of North Korean Studies at Ewha Womans University: They are trying to provide room to maneuver for President Trump, who desires dialogue between North Korea and the U.S. (By denying the hack,) they can at least give Trump a justification.]

North Korea has effectively put the ball in the U.S. court, and what follow-up measures Washington rolls out regarding the Binance hacking incident are expected to serve as a bellwether for assessing the future climate of North Korea-U.S. relations.

Video by Cho Chun-dong | Video Editing by Lee Seung-jin
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.