UN Experts: North Korea Stealing Millions in Cyber Attacks

FILE - Portraits of late North Korean leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il sit in downtown Pyongyang, North Korea on Dec. 19, 2018. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara, File) THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
FILE - Portraits of late North Korean leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il sit in downtown Pyongyang, North Korea on Dec. 19, 2018. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara, File) THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
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UN Experts: North Korea Stealing Millions in Cyber Attacks

FILE - Portraits of late North Korean leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il sit in downtown Pyongyang, North Korea on Dec. 19, 2018. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara, File) THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
FILE - Portraits of late North Korean leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il sit in downtown Pyongyang, North Korea on Dec. 19, 2018. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara, File) THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

North Korea is continuing to steal hundreds of millions of dollars from financial institutions and cryptocurrency firms and exchanges, illicit money that is an important source of funding for its nuclear and missile programs, UN experts said in a report quoting cyber specialists.

The panel of experts said that according to an unnamed government, North Korean “cyber-actors stole more than $50 million between 2020 and mid-2021 from at least three cryptocurrency exchanges in North America, Europe and Asia, probably reflecting a shift to diversify its cybercrime operations.”

And the experts said in the report’s section on cyber activities obtained Sunday by The Associated Press that an unidentified cybersecurity firm reported that in 2021 the North’s “cyber-actors stole a total of $400 million worth of cryptocurrency through seven intrusions into cryptocurrency exchanges and investment firms.”

These cyberattacks “made use of phishing lures, code exploits, malware, and advanced social engineering to siphon funds out of these organizations’ internet-connected 'hot’ wallets into DPRK-controlled addresses,” the panel said, using the initials of the country’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The cryptocurrency funds stolen by the DPRK cyber actors “go through a careful money laundering process in order to be cashed out,"" the panel of experts monitoring sanctions on North Korea said in the report to the UN Security Council.

A year ago, the panel quoted an unidentified country saying North Korea’s “total theft of virtual assets from 2019 to November 2020 is valued at approximately $316.4 million.”

In the executive summary of the new report, the experts said North Korea has continued to develop its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

“Although no nuclear tests or launches of ICBMs were reported, DPRK continued to develop its capability for production of nuclear fissile materials,” the panel said. Those fissile materials — uranium or plutonium — are crucial for a nuclear reaction.

The experts noted “a marked acceleration” of North Korean missile launches through January that used a variety of technology and weapons. The experts said North Korea “continued to seek material, technology and know-how for these programs overseas, including through cyber means and joint scientific research.”

A year ago, the panel said North Korea had modernized its nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles by flaunting United Nations sanctions, using cyberattacks to help finance its programs and continuing to seek material and technology overseas for its arsenal including in Iran.

“Cyberattacks, particularly on cryptocurrency assets, remain an important revenue source” for Kim Jong Un’s government, the experts monitoring the implementation of sanctions against the North said in the new report.

In addition to its recent launches, North Korea has threatened to lift its four-year moratorium on more serious weapons tests such as nuclear explosions and launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles.

The Security Council initially imposed sanctions on North Korea after its first nuclear test explosion in 2006 and toughened them in response to further nuclear tests and the country’s increasingly sophisticated nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

The panel of experts said North Korea’s blockade aimed at preventing COVID-19 resulted in “historically low levels” of people and goods entering and leaving the country. Legal and illegal trade including in luxury goods “has largely ceased” though cross-border rail traffic resumed in early January, it said.

The panel has previously made clear that North Korea remains able to evade sanctions and to illicitly import refined petroleum, access international banking channels and carry out “malicious cyber activities.”

UN sanctions ban North Korean coal exports and the experts said in the new report that although coal exports by sea increased in the second half of 2021, “they were still at relatively low levels.”

“The quantity of illicit imports of refined petroleum increased sharply in the same period, but at a much lower level than in previous years,” the panel said, adding that direct deliveries by non-North Korea tankers has ceased and only tankers from the North delivered oil, “a marked change of methodology” probably in response to COVID-19 measures.

The experts said North Korea also continues to evade maritime sanctions “by deliberately obfuscated financial and ownership networks.”

While the humanitarian situation in the country continues to worsen, the panel said the almost complete lack of information from the country makes it difficult to determine the “unintended humanitarian consequences of UN sanctions affecting the civilian population.”



Trump Proclaims Himself ‘In Good Shape,’ but the Results of His Physical Aren’t Immediately Released

US President Donald Trump looks on while walking to his vehicle upon arrival at Palm Beach International Airport, West Palm Beach, Florida, US, April 11, 2025. (Reuters)
US President Donald Trump looks on while walking to his vehicle upon arrival at Palm Beach International Airport, West Palm Beach, Florida, US, April 11, 2025. (Reuters)
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Trump Proclaims Himself ‘In Good Shape,’ but the Results of His Physical Aren’t Immediately Released

US President Donald Trump looks on while walking to his vehicle upon arrival at Palm Beach International Airport, West Palm Beach, Florida, US, April 11, 2025. (Reuters)
US President Donald Trump looks on while walking to his vehicle upon arrival at Palm Beach International Airport, West Palm Beach, Florida, US, April 11, 2025. (Reuters)

President Donald Trump had an annual physical Friday and concluded, "I did well," praising his own heart, soul and cognitive ability while noting medical reports from White House doctors may not be ready until the weekend.

The 78-year-old, who in January became the oldest in US history to be sworn in as president, spent nearly five hours at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center undergoing what he called "every test you can imagine."

"I was there for a long time," Trump said. "I think I did very well."

Despite long questioning predecessor Joe Biden’s physical and mental capacity, Trump has routinely kept basic facts about his own health shrouded in secrecy — shying away from traditional presidential transparency on medical issues. He said he believes the doctor's report on his latest physical would be ready on Sunday — though, if history is any indication, that may offer little more than flattery with scarce detail.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said while Trump was still being examined that a "readout from the White House physician" on his health that would be released "as soon as we possibly can" and suggested it’d be comprehensive.

Trump went straight from the examination to Air Force One to fly to Florida for the weekend. Speaking to reporters midflight, he said doctors offered him "a little bit" of advice on lifestyle changes that could improve his health, though he didn't elaborate on what that was.

"Overall, I felt I was in very good shape. A good heart, a good soul, a very good soul," Trump said. He also noted that he took a cognitive test. "I don’t know what to tell you other than I got every answer right," he said.

He said undergoing mental acuity screening was "what the American people want" and took another shot at his predecessor, saying, "Biden refused to take it."

The finished medical report would be the first public information on Trump's health since an assassination attempt against him in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July.

Rather than release medical records at that time, Texas Rep. Ronny Jackson — a staunch supporter who served as his White House physician and once joked in the White House briefing room that Trump could live to be 200 if he had a healthier diet — wrote a memo describing a gunshot wound to Trump’s right ear.

In a subsequent interview with CBS last August, Trump said he’d "very gladly" release his medical records, but never did.

Trump is three years younger than Biden. But on Inauguration Day of his second term in January, Trump was five months older than Biden was during his 2021 inauguration — making Trump the nation's oldest president to be sworn into office.

Presidents have privacy rights protecting their medical records just like ordinary citizens, and that means they have leeway over what details are released. Modern annual physicals, though, have often played key roles in offering the public a sense of the commander-in-chief's health.

Trump has long opted for offering few substantive details about his health. Before Jackson's memo, the public hadn't seen key details since November 2023, when Dr. Bruce A. Aronwald released a letter to coincide with Biden's 81st birthday, saying Trump was in "excellent" physical and mental health.

The letter, posted on Trump’s social media platform, lacks the basics — such as the Republican's weight, blood pressure and cholesterol levels, or the results of any test. Instead, Aronwald wrote that he'd examined Trump that fall and found his "physical exams were well within the normal range and his cognitive exams were exceptional," while also noting that Trump had "reduced his weight."

Trump was treated at Walter Reed, located in Bethesda, Maryland, outside Washington, for his serious bout with the coronavirus in 2020. During that time, Trump’s physician offered a rosy prognosis on his condition, though White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said some of Trump’s vital signs were "very concerning."

After Trump recovered, more details emerged that he had been sicker than he'd let on.

In November 2019, meanwhile, Trump's trip to Walter Reed for a physical was omitted from his public schedule, breaking the White House protocol of giving advance public notice of them.

The visit was revealed three days later, with Trump disclosing that he'd had a "very routine physical." The White House released a subsequent statement from the president’s then-personal physician, US Navy Cmdr. Sean Conley, saying it had been a "planned interim checkup" kept "off the record" due to scheduling uncertainties.

Arguably, Trump's most famous past comments about his own health came during a television interview in July 2020, when he listed off "Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV" while attempting to demonstrate his cognitive abilities.

Trump said that a collection of those five nouns, or ones like them, stated in order, demonstrated mental fitness and were part of a cognitive test he had aced. The president was asked about that test again on Air Force One on Friday and responded, "It’s a pretty well known test."

"Whatever it is, I got every one — I got it all right," he said.