PANews reported on April 12 that, according to CoinDesk, North Korea's long-term and open large-scale cryptocurrency theft has become a core means for it to circumvent international sanctions and obtain hard currency. With traditional financial channels blocked by sanctions, North Korea relies on state-backed hacking organizations to continuously launch phishing attacks, infiltration attacks, and contract vulnerability exploits against exchanges and DeFi protocols. The stolen funds are primarily used for the development of ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons programs.

On-chain data shows that North Korean hackers have stolen billions of dollars in cryptocurrency annually in recent years, exhibiting characteristics of "decreasing frequency but increasing individual amounts," and their money laundering networks are sophisticated and difficult to trace across borders. The article argues that as long as sanctions and weapons development needs remain unchanged, North Korea's cryptocurrency theft will continue.