A confidential U.N. report says North Korea used cyberattacks to steal hundreds of millions of dollars to fund its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, in violation of international law.
The report, leaked to the media Tuesday, says North Korea will be able to boost its nuclear and missile programs in 2020 despite numerous international sanctions.
Citing information from a U.N. member state, the report said North Korea has stolen more than $300 million through cyberattacks and cyber fraud to fund its military expansion.
The report highlights that North Korea’s new ballistic missile, recently displayed at a military parade, is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead and has the potential to reach the entire United States.
North Korea boasted in January that it was developing “the world’s most powerful weapon” – a submarine-launched ballistic missile. The missile has not yet been test-fired and its attack capability is unknown.
Sojin Lim, a North Korean affairs analyst at the University of Central Lancashire in Britain, said one reason for North Korea’s display of military might is in response to the change of administration in Washington.
“The nuclear program is North Korea’s only survival strategy, and that’s especially true for the survival of the Kim Family and regime,” Sojin Lim told the Voice of America. “Their economic situation has worsened recently due to the new crown Epidemic. There is no other way for North Korea to discuss or negotiate with the new U.S. administration under President Biden.”
Independent monitors of the U.N. Security Council’s North Korea sanctions committee wrote the report, which was leaked to the media on Tuesday.
North Korea is subject to a series of multilateral U.N. sanctions as well as unilateral sanctions by the United States and the European Union. Lim So Kim believes these sanctions have not been effective.
“The sanctions have made Life more difficult for civilians, but the goal or intent of the sanctions themselves was to change the policies of this country, but they have not had that effect,” she said. “North Korea has managed to find new ways to mobilize financially, and the huge amounts of money that these cyber attacks have garnered have reinforced my belief that sanctions have not worked. We do need to find a new framework for engaging North Korea now.”
North Korea has conducted a series of missile and nuclear tests over the past decade, and they have grown in scale.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un three times in 2018 and 2019, but negotiations failed to get the North to give up its nuclear weapons.
U.S. National Security Adviser Sullivan told reporters Feb. 4 that the new Biden-led administration is taking a new approach.
Sullivan said, “President Biden told President Moon Jae-in that deliberations are ongoing and that we will be consulting closely with our allies, particularly the Republic of Korea and Japan.”
Despite U.S. assurances of a new approach to Pyongyang, most experts believe there is little hope for immediate progress in denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula.
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