Seoul slams North Korea's 'black money'

Koo Byoung-sam, the spokesperson for South Korea's unification ministry, speaks at a press briefing at the government complex in Seoul. [YONHAP]

South Korea's unification ministry handling inter-Korean affairs said Monday that it will cooperate with the international community to put a brake on Pyongyang's evolving money laundering schemes.

During its plenary meeting in Paris last week, the Financial Action Task Force, an intergovernmental anti-money laundering body, decided to maintain North Korea for the 13th consecutive year on the list of "high-risk jurisdictions subject to a call for action," defined as having significant deficiencies in countering money laundering, terrorist financing and financing of proliferation.

A separate report by the U.N. Panel of Experts on U.N. Security Council sanctions against Pyongyang showed that cryptocurrency theft by North Korea's state-sponsored hackers were estimated at nearly $1.7 billion last year, growing three-fold from 2021.

"As shown, the North Korean regime's seizure of illicit funds to secure money for its rule and development of weapons of mass destruction is becoming bolder day by day, in means and scale," Koo Byoung-sam, the ministry spokesperson said in a regular press briefing.

"The shortcut to resolving all problems on the Korean Peninsula, such as the North's denuclearization and promotion of human rights, lies in blocking the inflow of black money to the regime of Kim Jong-un," Koo said.

He said South Korea will actively work with the international community to shut off such inflows, though he did not provide any further details.

Yonhap