An Irresistible Target: North Korea’s Use of Cryptocurrency to Fund the Regime

By Lauren Jackson, Former Legal Research Intern
Edited by Rosa Park, HRNK Director of Programs and Editor, and Benjamin Fu, HRNK Research Intern

June 23, 2020

The growing field of cryptocurrency is the new forum for rogue states and bad actors to earn a profit and finance criminal activities. Due to the largely unregulated and unsecured nature of the crypto industry as it stands today, there are very few consequences for stealing cryptocurrency. North Korea has exploited this vulnerability, and experts believe that the Kim regime exchanges coins for currency or physical goods to finance and support its leadership as well as nuclear and ballistic missile programs.[1] If North Korea is able to gain a steady revenue of funds from cryptocurrency, then the regime will continue to perpetrate human rights abuses. North Korean leadership will have no financial incentive to end its human rights violations if the country’s cybercrimes involving cryptocurrency render sanctions useless. Skirting sanctions enables North Korea to maintain its gulags, to keep its borders closed, and to continue to isolate its citizens from the rest of the world.

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