North Korea condemns ‘wicked nature’ of latest US sanctions

SEOUL – North Korea on Nov 6 condemned the latest US sanctions imposed on people and organisations accused of cybercrimes, saying they showed Washington’s “wicked nature to be hostile” against the regime.

The criticism came after the US Treasury announced this week sanctions on eight individuals and two entities “for their role in laundering funds derived from a variety of illicit Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) schemes”.

The department said that the individuals were “state-sponsored hackers”, whose illicit operations were conducted “to fund the regime’s nuclear weapons programme” by stealing and laundering money.

Pyongyang’s “cyber criminals have stolen over US$3 billion (S$3.92 billion) over the past three years”, US officials said, “primarily in cryptocurrency, often using sophisticated techniques such as advanced malware and social engineering”.

Mr Kim Un Chol, vice-minister for US affairs at North Korea’s Foreign Ministry, denounced the move in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency on Nov 6.

“Recently, the new US administration has imposed its exclusive sanctions on the DPRK, the fifth of their kind since its assumption of office,” he said.

“By doing so, the US administration showed to the full its stand that it would be hostile towards the DPRK to the last,” he added.

Mr Kim said sanctions would not affect the policy course of the nuclear-armed state but would “only be recorded as a typical example symbolising the failure in its incurable policy towards the DPRK”.

The latest measures came after US President Donald Trump repeatedly expressed willingness to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during his Asia tour last week, an offer that went unanswered by Pyongyang.

Mr Kim Jong Un met Mr Trump three times for high-profile summits during the US leader’s first term, but talks collapsed over what concessions Pyongyang was prepared to make on its atomic weapons. AFP