Have you been keeping up with the news about North Korea’s nuclear program? If so, you may have heard it’s been funded with stolen cryptocurrency. And now that the world’s second-largest crypto exchange, FTX, has declared bankruptcy, could the North Korean nuclear program collapse?
First of all, it’s been known for years that Kim Jong-un’s hackers have been stealing cryptocurrency to finance North Korea’s nuclear and missile program. However, the crypto market has been in a general downturn recently, and the FTX crash only made matters worse. Analysts estimate that North Korea has lost most of its crypto haul.
So, could this mean the end of North Korea’s nuclear weapons development? Probably not. Kim Jong-un’s army of cybercriminals is estimated to comprise 6,000 to 7,000 hackers, both inside and outside the country. This is an incredibly difficult force to defend against once it starts charging. Just to give you some context, in 2016, these hackers almost stole $1 billion from Bangladesh’s national bank.
Since then, they’ve become even more sophisticated. It’s believed that Lazarus hackers have stolen more than $1 billion in cryptocurrency this year alone. That’s a considerable sum when you consider that North Korea only earned about $142 million from trade exports in 2020.
So, what does this mean for North Korea’s nuclear program? Well, it’s hard to say exactly how much cryptocurrency North Korea has lost. However, blockchain analyst and former FBI analyst Nick Carlsen told Reuters that one of North Korea’s crypto caches had lost 80% to 85% of its value in a matter of weeks, falling to less than $10 million.
It’s also worth noting that North Korea has several other sources of income. For example, it has supporters in South Korea who follow the “Juche” ideology, and in April, an American crypto expert pleaded guilty to helping North Korea evade US sanctions through the use of cryptocurrency. Then, of course, there’s China, which continues to trade with North Korea despite international sanctions.
So, will the FTX collapse cause the North Korean nuclear program to collapse? Probably not. While it’s had an impact, Kim Jong-un still has several other sources of income to fund his nuclear ambitions.
