US, South Korea, Japan express concern over North Korea's 'malicious' cyber activities

SEOUL: The United States, South Korea and Japan expressed deep concern over North Korea's "malicious" cyber activities to support its weapons programmes, in comments released in a joint statement on Friday (Apr 7).

Cryptocurrency funds stolen by North Korean hackers have been a key source for financing the sanctions-stricken country's weapons programmes, say officials and experts in the three countries.

"We reiterate with concern that overseas DPRK IT workers continue using forged identities and nationalities" to evade United Nations sanctions and raise funds for missile programmes, according to the statement, using the acronym for North Korea's official name.

"We are also deeply concerned about how the DPRK supports these programmes by stealing and laundering funds as well as gathering information through malicious cyber activities."

South Korea's nuclear envoy held talks with his US and Japanese counterparts in Seoul earlier this week and condemned North Korea's weapons tests.