A U.S. court has ordered the forfeiture of certain virtual assets linked to money laundering by North Korean overseas IT workers.

According to NK News, a U.S.-based media outlet specializing in North Korea, Judge Rudolph Contreras of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled on the 3rd that funds contained in a cryptocurrency wallet starting with the address '0x81c4' should be forfeited to the U.S. government.

U.S. prosecutors stated that the cryptocurrency wallet holds $212,700 worth of stablecoins, equivalent to approximately 285 million Korean won.

They claimed this corresponds to the wages of at least 14 North Korean IT workers.

This ruling comes as the U.S. Department of Justice is pursuing a lawsuit to forfeit $7.74 million worth of cryptocurrency associated with North Korea's overseas workers.

In June of last year, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit to forfeit North Korea-related digital assets that were seized or frozen by the U.S. government between 2022 and 2023.

The funds seized or frozen by U.S. authorities included Binance accounts belonging to individuals named Shim Hyon-sub and Kim Sang-man, whom the U.S. blacklisted in 2023.

Shim Hyon-sub is accused of acting as a representative for Korea Kwangson Banking Corp., which has been placed under U.S. and United Nations sanctions for its involvement in North Korea's weapons of mass destruction program.

He is reportedly managing $24 million worth of digital assets, equivalent to about 32.2 billion won, which have gone through laundering processes.

Shim is also known to play a role in collecting and controlling the wages of North Korean IT workers.

The U.S. Department of Justice has placed a 7 million dollar bounty on information regarding Shim Hyon-sub.

Kim Sang-man is known as an official at the Jinyang Information Technology Cooperation Corporation, which is tied to the North Korean Ministry of Defense and operates out of Vladivostok, Russia.

He is accused of laundering funds for North Korean IT workers operating in China, Russia, the United Arab Emirates, and other countries.

(Reported by Kim Jiuk | Video by Kim Na-on | Graphics by Yang Hye-min | Produced by SBS Digital News)