North Korea slams US sanctions on cybercrimes and says pressure tactics will fail

North Korea on Thursday denounced the Trump administration’s latest sanctions targeting cybercrimes that help finance its illicit nuclear weapons program, accusing the United States of harboring “wicked” hostility toward Pyongyang and vowing unspecified countermeasures.

The statement by a North Korean vice foreign minister came after the U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday imposed sanctions on eight individuals and two firms, including North Korean bankers, for allegedly laundering money from cybercrime schemes.

The Treasury said North Korea’s state-sponsored hacking schemes have stolen more than $3 billion in mostly digital assets over the past three years, an amount unmatched by any other foreign actor, and that the illicit funds help finance the country’s nuclear weapons program. The department said North Korea relies on a network of banking representatives, financial institutions and shell companies in North Korea, China, Russia and elsewhere to launder funds obtained through IT worker fraud, cryptocurrency heists and sanctions evasion.

Read more at Associated Press