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North Korea has reportedly collected $ 2 billion through cyberattacks, allowing it to finance its weapons programs. REUTERS / Kacper Pempel / Illustration / Photo File

Thanks to sophisticated computer attacks, the North Korean regime has procured up to $ 2 billion to finance its weapons program, according to a UN report.

The report states that North Korea " has used cyberspace to launch increasingly sophisticated attacks to steal funds from financial institutions and exchange cryptocurrencies to generate revenue ." The country has also used cyberspace to launder stolen money, experts say.

Their investigation led them to conclude that North Korean cyber agents , working mainly under the direction of the General Reconnaissance Office - one of the country's leading intelligence agencies - have raised funds for weapons of mass destruction programs. massive Pyongyang, estimated at $ 2 billion.

In their report, investigators identified " at least 35 reported cases of agents of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea attacking financial institutions, cryptocurrency exchanges and mining activities to earn foreign exchange " in 17 countries.

Cryptocurrencies, ideal for circumventing the embargo

The choice to target cryptocurrency stock exchanges is not trivial. This allowed Pyongyang to " generate more difficult revenue to locate " and evade "government oversight and regulation ," the UN's independent experts analyze.

Nicolas Arpagian, author of Cybersecurity at Presses Universitaires de France, confirms that " cryptocurrencies, which have the merit of being essentially anonymous, are a source of revenue for states that are subject to embargoes : the deprivation of foreign currency, the limitation, the ability to contract with international companies and the ability to pay in internationally recognized currencies . "

It is therefore not surprising that piracy of cryptocurrencies is part of the panoply available to North Korea to circumvent or limit the effects of the embargo. This is not the first time that Pyongyang is suspected of " having access to this type of technology. "

" It does not necessarily involve a lot of people, but it involves a strategy and expertise, says Nicolas Arpagian. A strategy is a deliberate desire, as part of a national strategy, to target this type of infrastructure. And secondly, to have competent staff and therefore to have a training, an apprenticeship. This is where the state has the capacity to work over time, that is to say in order to gain in competence, but in view of the gains that this can generate, it is a strategic axis. "