Binance freezes assets of North Korean companies at the request of the United States

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Cryptocurrency exchange Binance reported that, at the request of American authorities, it froze $4.4 million in crypto assets associated with organizations from North Korea.

Binance Investigations worked withby U.S. law enforcement to disrupt the “illegal revenue-generating activities” of four North Korean entities that are currently under sanctions, the crypto exchange explained on Twitter.

“We began taking proactive action against these accounts over a year ago,” company officials said.

Office of Foreign Controlassets The US Treasury Department on May 23 announced sanctions against four organizations and one individual that engaged in “cyber activities in support of the government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.”

These organizations were the Pyongyang University of Automation, the information technology operator Chinyong, the Technical Intelligence Bureau and the 110th Research Center subordinate to it.

According to the Ministry of Finance, Chinyongsupports "thousands of highly trained IT professionals around the world" who launder funds used to create weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles.

The sanctions list includes someone named Kim Sang Man, who received $2 million in cryptocurrency for selling IT equipment to groups in China and Russia associated with North Korea.

Earlier, Sekoia analysts presented a report where they reported that the North Korean hacker group BlueNoroff is attacking macOS users using malware called RustBucket.

Hacker groups linked to North Korea stole $721 million in cryptocurrency from Japanese entrepreneurs from 2017 to 2022. In the US government
believe that cyber attacks and cryptocurrency theftbecame the main source of income for the North Korean authorities. At least half of North Korea's missile program is financed by cybercrime, Washington claims.