OFAC Raises Tornado Cash Sanctions With North Korea WMD Claims

The U.S. Treasury Department is asserting that North Korea has utilized the cryptocurrency mixing service to promote its weapons of mass destruction (WMD) program by "redesignating" Tornado Cash as an authorized organization. The Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) of the Treasury Department announced yesterday that it would stop selling and reassign Tornado Cash, a security tool that pools payments to obscure senders and receivers, in response to claims that North Korea has used Tornado Cash to transfer over $100 million in cryptocurrency to fund its WMD program, which comprises the creation of ballistic missiles.

OFAC To Impose Sanctions on Air Koryo

In recent months, North Korea has launched a series of missiles, which caused alarm in Japan and South Korea as the missiles traveled in their approximate area. However, no missile ever made ground contact. It is important to note that OFAC hasn't imposed sanctions only on Tornado Cash but also on Air Koryo, the nation's flag carrier, and two people it claimed assisted North Korea in importing missile parts. Undersecretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson stated that today's penalties action addresses two significant nodes of the DPRK's weapons programs- the heavy dependence on illegal activities, including cybercrime, to generate cash and its capacity to acquire and transport materials in support of mass destruction devices and ballistic missile programs.