The South Korean Government is planning to submit a bill to track and freeze the crypto assets of North Korea that are used to fund illegal weapons.
According to the Korea JoongAng Daily report, multiple government insiders revealed on August 3 that South Korea is working on the bill. The bill is developed to address the country’s cybersecurity concerns, as the president believes there is a need to improve the current cybersecurity framework.
A high-ranking government official said, “The country’s cyber security framework urgently needs repair.”
Additionally, another unnamed source working within the administration mentioned that the latest version of the bill will contain ways to “track and neutralize” cryptocurrency and other virtual assets stolen by North Korea through hacking and other illegal means.
Notably, all this was not included in the previous bill proposed by the National Intelligence Service (NIS) in November 2022.
In addition to the cybersecurity bill, the government is planning to establish a national cybersecurity committee directly supervised by the President. This committee will be responsible for creating various measures to support the country’s defenses against hacking attempts by foreign entities.
The Chief of the National Security Office will lead this new committee along with the NIS director.
According to the report of South Korean Intelligence, North Korea stole about 1.7 trillion won ($1.28 billion) worth of Bitcoin and Ethereum through various hacking organizations in 2022 alone.
The report also stated that “North Korean hackers have stolen over $3 billion over the past five years.”
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