A leaked United Nations report from Reuters reveals that North Korean hackers have allegedly stolen 3 billion pounds from cryptocurrency attacks and used the funds to finance their nuclear weapons development. During the same period, Monero was delisted by Binance, with the reason being undisclosed.
The United Nations and global law enforcement agencies are cracking down on North Korean illicit money laundering activities disguised as privacy technology. According to Reuters’ report on the 8th, UN sanctions monitors are investigating dozens of theft cases orchestrated by North Korea through cyber attacks, believing that these cases have provided substantial funding for North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.
Unreasonable economic recovery and luxury goods trading
According to diplomats, the official release of the UN report is scheduled for later this month or next month. However, more importantly, the UN Security Council sees the trend of North Korea’s economic and trade recovery from its biannual reports, and that international sanctions may gradually become ineffective. All of this is related to China and Russia’s stance on North Korea being different from that of the United States.
The UN Security Council has long prohibited the sale or transfer of luxury goods to North Korea, and all countries should repatriate North Korean workers to prevent them from earning overseas income for their leader, Kim Jong-un. However, investigations have found that North Korea is still engaging in international crimes through online activities and even conducting financial business in international finance, which violates the Security Council’s resolutions.
The sanctions monitors have stated that these cyber hackers are mainly affiliated with Pyongyang’s Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB), and as crimes continue to occur, there are even signs of ongoing nuclear tests since 2017. Furthermore, North Korea has continuously launched ballistic missiles and attempted to place submarines with nuclear attack capabilities in their arsenal.
Monero, the privacy coin, suspected of being affected by sanctions, and Binance announced its delisting
At the same time, mainstream stablecoins internationally have also been almost completely banned at the same time, possibly related to the international community’s series of actions and sanctions against North Korea. Since OKX delisted the privacy coin Monero (XMR) on January 5th, Binance also announced on February 6th that it will delist it completely on February 20th, without providing specific reasons, only posting several possible factors, including:
Unethical/fraudulent behavior
New regulatory requirements
The collapse of major trading markets has also caused a sharp decline in the XMR token price. After the news of XMR’s delisting on February 6th, the price plummeted from $166 to $102, a decrease of 39%.
Following the news, there was a slight rebound, temporarily settling around $121. However, with the international ban on North Korea and the news about XMR, other trading platforms such as KuCoin, Gate.io, and Kraken may face difficulties from the United States and the international community if they want to maintain the listing of XMR.
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