North Korea Steals, China Launders... Operations Still Underway

[Anchor]

It has been confirmed that North Korean hackers are currently working to convert massive amounts of stolen virtual assets into cash. An investigator interviewed by SBS stated that Chinese criminal organizations are handling this laundering process on their behalf, urging the Chinese government to put a stop to it.

This is an exclusive report by reporter Choi Seung-hun.

[Reporter]

Investigator Nick Carlsen stated that North Korea appears to have entrusted Chinese syndicates with laundering its hacked virtual assets.

[Nick Carlsen / North Korea Specialist Investigator, TRM Labs: Simply put, North Korea steals the money, and Chinese criminal organizations launder it in exchange for a commission.]

He pointed to the fact that North Korean hacker organizations and Chinese criminal syndicates have been collaborating for the past several years.

It is understood that hacked virtual assets are being laundered at this very moment, split into small amounts and transferred across numerous digital wallets.

Blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis revealed that more than 1,000 digital wallet addresses were mobilized to move over 500 million dollars in virtual assets.

These organizations are also analyzed to be utilizing artificial intelligence for money laundering, selecting the fastest and safest methods.

Investigator Carlsen stated that he is tracking which Chinese organizations were involved and expressed confidence that they would soon secure the information.

[Nick Carlsen / North Korea Specialist Investigator, TRM Labs: We are almost certain that we will secure meaningful information regarding the Chinese individuals involved in the money laundering.]

Investigator Carlsen emphasized that only the Chinese government can halt this money laundering operation.

[Nick Carlsen / North Korea Specialist Investigator, TRM Labs: We hope that the Chinese government takes this issue seriously this time, because they have not done so in the past.]

This is why experts point out that cutting off North Korea's funding source will be difficult without substantive cooperation from China.

(Video Editing: Choi Hye-ran, Design: JUNHO, VJ: Lee Ji-hwan)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.