New york: North Korea likely stole over US$2 billion in cryptocurrency last year, a U.S. official said Monday, amid growing concerns that its revenue from virtual asset heists continues to bankroll its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
According to Yonhap News Agency, Jonathan Fritz, principal deputy assistant secretary at the State Department's Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, delivered a presentation during a U.N. meeting on a Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT) report detailing North Korea's sanctions violation and evasion through cyber and information technology worker activities.
The MSMT was established after a U.N. expert panel, tasked with monitoring sanctions enforcement, was disbanded in April 2024 due to Russia's veto of a resolution to extend its mandate. It consists of 11 countries, including South Korea, the United States, Japan, Australia, and Canada.
Fritz's document, based on the MSMT report, showed that from January last year through September, Pyongyang had stolen more than $1.6 billion in crypto thefts, with the total amount during the entire 2025 likely to exceed $2 billion. The assessment aligns with an estimate from Chainalysis, a blockchain data platform, which has indicated that North Korean hackers stole $2.02 billion in cryptocurrency in 2025, marking a 51 percent year-over-year increase.
From January 2024 to September last year, the country reportedly stole over $2.8 billion, according to the MSMT document. Fritz emphasized that this is a conservative low-end estimate, with the actual number likely being higher.
The U.S. official stated that North Korea relies on networks of its nationals abroad and foreign-based facilitators, including in China, Russia, Cambodia, and Vietnam, to launder stolen digital assets into fiat currency to fund its weapons of mass destruction programs.
Additionally, Pyongyang has deployed many IT workers overseas, including 1,000 to 1,500 workers in China and 150 to 300 workers in Russia, who engage in fraudulent activities to generate revenue for the regime. These workers defraud global companies to gain legitimate jobs, thus taking employment opportunities from domestic populations and exposing businesses to risk.
During the U.N. meeting, Kim Sang-jin, South Korea's deputy envoy to the U.N., criticized Russia's veto in 2024 that led to the disbandment of the U.N. sanctions monitoring panel. Kim highlighted that the U.N. sanctions regime against North Korea is constantly challenged by "malign actors across the globe." He underscored that the MSMT report reveals how North Korea is financing its unlawful weapons programs by exploiting the crypto industry and systematically undermining the integrity of global financial systems.