The U.S. government believes that cyberattacks and cryptocurrency theft have become a major source of income for the North Korean authorities.
At least half of North Korea’s missile program is funded by cybercrime, says Anne Neuberger, deputy national security adviser for cybercrime and new technologies.
Intelligence agencies are now busy figuring out how the DPRK manages to steal crypto-assets on such a large scale.
According to a recent CNN investigation, North Korean hackers who steal and then launder cryptocurrencies are funding the weapons programs of local Communist Party leader Kim Jong Un.
Another CNN investigation revealed one cryptocurrency entrepreneur who said his firm unwittingly sent tens of thousands of dollars to a North Korean IT professional.
Earlier, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) penalized three over-the-counter crypto traders for helping to convert crypto assets to the North Korean hacking group Lazarus. 
North Korean hacker group APT43 is using cloud mining services to launder stolen cryptocurrency, according to a report by US cybersecurity company Mandiant.