North Korean hackers are sharing money-laundering and underground banking networks with fraudsters and drug traffickers in Southeast Asia, according to a United Nations report published on Monday, with casinos and crypto exchanges emerging as key venues for organized crime.
The United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said without elaborating it had observed "several instances" of such sharing in the Mekong area - which includes Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia - by hackers including North Korea's Lazarus Group.
The UNODC said it had identified the activity via analysis of case information and blockchain data.
Contacted by phone about the UNODC report, a person at North Korea's mission to the United Nations in Geneva said, without giving his name, that he was "not familiar with the issue" and that previous reporting on Lazarus was "all speculation and misinformation."
Lazarus, which the United States has said is controlled by North Korea's primary intelligence bureau, has been accused of involvement in a string of high-profile cyberheists and ransomware attacks. Funds stolen by North Korean hackers are a key source of funding for Pyongyang and its weapons programs.