South Korea sanctioned four North Korean individuals and seven organizations for conducting illegal cyber activities to finance the totalitarian regime’s nuclear and missile development programs.
Seoul accused the individuals and institutions of stealing virtual currency, conducting ransomware attacks and obtaining IT work at front companies using fake documents to raise funds.
Among the individuals is Park Jin-Hyok, an alleged member of Reconnaissance General Bureau, North Korea’s military intelligence agency. Park is already named in a U.S. federal indictment for allegedly participating in a campaign to steal more than $1.3 billion of money and cryptocurrency from financial institutions and companies worldwide.
The United States also charged Park for carrying out the global WannaCry 2.0 ransomware attacks, an $81 million heist from Bangladesh Bank in 2016, and numerous other attacks.
Seoul also sanctioned Jo Myong Rae, the head of the Computer Technology Research Institute, and Chosun Expo Joint Venture, a front company with offices in China and North Korea. The sanctions list also blacklists state hacking groups such as Lazarus, Bluenoroff and Andariel, and the state Technical Reconnaissance Bureau.
