Former US NSA officer: Kim Jong-un might have 11,000 bitcoins

Another source has confirmed the cryptocurrency-related activities of Kim Jong-un and his special forces. Priscilla Moriuchi who worked for the National Security Agency in the United States has recently talked with Radio Free Asia and told that the regime of North Korea is indeed using hackers.

According to her, eleven thousand bitcoins might have been acquired by Kim Jong-un and his high-ranking party comrades through unlawful activities of the hackers they finance. While in December 2017 (when Bitcoin was $20,000) this sum could have been sold for $210 million, after the price drop it became lesser - $110 million.

Priscilla Moriuchi has also mentioned a hacker group called Bureau 121 consisting of North Korean talented students. This makes this a second government-backed North Korean group in addition to Lazarus, previously mentioned in the media in connection with WannaCry, an infamous Bitcoin ransom virus.

The need of North Korea in bitcoins is explained by the fact that under heavy sanctions due to the nuclear missile program the government has to come up with new ideas on how to hide financial flows related to their state.

Image courtesy of Reuters