Members of a United Nations panel of experts monitoring North Korea’s sanctions have reportedly found a link between the totalitarian state and crypto mixer Tornado Cash.
According to Reuters, a confidential document from the observers told the UN Security Council Sanctions Committee that North Korea used Tornado Cash to launder $147.5 million worth of stolen crypto assets earlier this year.
The eight-member panel of experts was disbanded in April after Russia vetoed the extension of its mandate. In the unfinished work they filed Friday, the observers said they examined 97 suspected North Korean cyberattacks on cryptocurrency companies involving about $3.6 billion in assets.
The attacks, which took place between 2017 and 2024, include the $147.5 million theft last year that targeted Seychelles-based crypto exchange HTX. The monitors say data from crypto analytics firm PeckShield and blockchain research firm Elliptic shows the stolen money was laundered through Tornado Cash in March.
This year alone, the monitors watched 11 cryptocurrency thefts worth $54.7 million. According to their report, a significant number of these attacks were carried out by North Korean IT workers who accidentally hired small crypto-related companies.
In 2022, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Tornado Cash, saying the platform laundered more than $7 billion worth of virtual currencies, including more than $455 million stolen by the North Korean hacker collective Lazarus Group.
North Korea is said to rely on cyber attacks to finance its nuclear and missile programs.
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