North Korea Is Dodging Sanctions With a Secret Bitcoin Stash (bloomberg.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: North Korea appears to be stepping up efforts to secure bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, which could be used to avoid trade restrictions including new sanctions approved by the United Nations Security Council. Hackers from Kim Jong Un's regime are increasing their attacks on cryptocurrency exchanges in South Korea and related sites, according to a new report from security researcher FireEye Inc. They also breached an English-language bitcoin news website and collected bitcoin ransom payments from global victims of the malware WannaCry, according to the researcher. Kim's apparent interest in cryptocurrencies comes amid rising prices and popularity. The same factors that have driven their success -- lack of state control and secretiveness -- would make them useful fund raising and money laundering tools for a man threatening to use nuclear weapons against the U.S. With tightening sanctions and usage of cryptocurrencies broadening, security experts say North Korea's embrace of digital cash will only increase. The 15-member Security Council on Monday approved sanctions aimed at punishing North Korea for its latest missile and nuclear tests. U.S. officials said the new measures would cut the country's textile exports by 90 percent, restricting its ability to get hard currency.

Comments

Re:This is why we need to criminalize CryptoCash

[Air-conditioned cowh]

So the banks that govern our fiat currencies have "moral responsibilities" do they? Actually, no, they don't at all. This is precisely why cryptocurrency was invented.

China

[Anonymous Coward]

N. Korea only exists because of China. MacArthur had the fucking N. Koreans almost off the map but the Chinese had to come in and save them and prop up the Kim regimes.

It is 100% China's fault that North Korea exists and pulls this shit. All they have to do is pull the rug out and N. Korea falls. Un wants to be the shit, China is perfectly capable of neutralizing him.

China wants to be a World power? Well, it's time they learn the burdens and responsibilities.

Otherwise, China can go fuck themselves.

Re:China

[Kierthos]

China is propping up North Korea because they want a buffer state in the way. They're not exactly pleased with Kim Jong Un's nuclear ambitions, but the last thing they want is a regime change to a more democratic model.

They're supporting the (somewhat watered down) sanctions that just passed the UN Security Council, and you damn well bet that there's some conversations going on between China and North Korea over this. But they still have to be careful about this because, as you may have noticed, North Korea doesn't have a history of stable reactions.

China has also said that if North Korea is preemptively attacked, they will honor their defense treaty with North Korea and assist them. Hopefully, Trump isn't stupid enough to test that. But China has also said that if North Korea starts anything (like attacking Guam), then they're on their own. Hopefully, Kim Jong Un isn't stupid enough to test that.

Re:China

[Anonymous Coward]

Another reason they are propping them up is that if North Korea falls, it will mean millions of refugees headed in every direction, including China. Remember, North Korea is basically just a huge concentration camp.

As for "assist them", that's quite open. Will they be pissed off, sure. Shipping arms and munitions? Probably. Volonteers? Questionable. Outright war with South Korea and the US over North Korea? Not impossible but it would be very irrational. China today is not China in the 50's. Basically China has a lot to lose on that, not only in military terms but economical as well. It would be a huge mess that would wreak havoc on the world economy, and completely wreck the Chinese. No matter how much they'd hate to lose North Korea, they'd think long and hard before getting too serious about it.

Re:China

[Anonymous Coward]

You misunderstand China. Refugees entering their country is not a problem. Refugees surviving being shot is another issue.

The biggest mistake you can make about China is thinking that they think like Westerners, Indians, Russians, or even Middle-Easterners. The Chinese government do not have the same scruples and ethics you assume other folks to have.

There is a glossy sheen over a nasty ball of ugly over there. I would trust the Russians 100 times more.

Re: This is why we need to criminalize CryptoCash

[spikenerd]

Please leave, we don't want your racist kind here.

I'm seriously struggling to figure out if that was sarcasm or if society has degraded to the point where people can no longer sense hypocrisy in their own voices. Let's all review the levels of argument, shall we?

Re:This is why we need to criminalize CryptoCash

[courteaudotbiz]

The corrupt Financial Industrial Complex is the real reason cryptocurrency was invented and continues to be justified.

And the real reason why the governments will want it to stay in place is full traceability. Yes, for now, BTC is totally anonymous. But wait till the governments put their nose into it, and require all wallet holders to be IDd. Then ALL the transactions you will ever have done in your life can be tied to you.

I want to still be able to use paper money, and they will make it more and more difficult to use it.

Re:This is why we need to criminalize CryptoCash

[Applehu Akbar]

Given the current bubblicious trading in BTC, one strategy for our intelligence agencies might be to assist in the pump-and-dump, leaving Weird Fat Kid as the last fool to be holding a hard drive full of devalued tulip bits.

Isn't this a good case for a "poisened wallet" bla

[loren]

I am no cryptocurrency expert, but my understanding is that the BTC really only has value because the BTC user base has formed a consensus that it does. I believe the vast majority of conscience human beings can agree that North Korea's (government's) recent actions and stance are dangerous and morally reprehensible.

Assuming that NK has channeled most of its BTC stash through a small number of wallets, and that most of them may be identified by NK's spending patterns, I think this is a good case for implementing "poisoned wallets" to render all BTC (or partial BTC) that left a verboten wallet after a given time stamp. This would work, of course, only for users that use the blacklist enabled version of the software... but I believe enough people find NK's position sufficiently dangerous to warrant adopting this alternative code base to at least GREATLY DEVALUE these "tainted" BTC. This type of change begs two interesting questions:

1) How are the list of poisoned wallets managed? On the micro level, I believe the choice of banned wallets should be up to the individual BTC user, but most users won't want to manage such a tedious list. I expect users would want to defer this responsibility to one or more "accusation bodies" each with their own accusation, conviction, poisoning and appeal processes, all blockchain protected (outside the BTC blockchain)... I expect users would sign up for these poisoning feeds in one of two groups: 1) organizations that uphold the users moral convictions, or 2) organizations that seek out a superset of poisoned wallets, for those that want to ensure any BTC they receive are untainted, and good for other transactions. I believe most users would be most interested in aggregators (#2), but enough users would also add original accusers (#1) to make such a system plausable.

2) Tainted BTCs wouldn't be completely valueless, as some users may still accept them, so differently tainted BTCs would trade at their own distinct prices, which may be an interesting opportunity for cryptocurrency exchange companies.

What do you think?