{"id":21693,"date":"2023-04-24T16:50:19","date_gmt":"2023-04-24T16:50:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/us-sanctions-target-three\/"},"modified":"2023-04-24T16:57:01","modified_gmt":"2023-04-24T16:57:01","slug":"us-sanctions-target-three","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/us-sanctions-target-three\/","title":{"rendered":"US sanctions target three in China for laundering North Korean cyber hauls"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States on Monday announced sanctions on three people it said were involved in laundering virtual currency stolen by North Korean hackers to help finance Pyongyang&#8217;s weapons programs. <\/p>\n<p>A U.S. Treasury statement said the three were a China-based virtual currency trader, another currency trader based in Hong Kong, and a representative of North Korea&#8217;s Korea Kwangson Banking Corp, who recently relocated to Dandong, China.<\/p>\n<p>China-based trader Wu Huihui facilitated the conversion of virtual currency stolen by North Korea&#8217;s cybercriminal syndicate, the Lazarus Group, the statement said. The Hong Kong-based trader, Cheng Hung Man, worked with Wu to remit payments in exchange for virtual currency, it said.<\/p>\n<p>Also targeted was Sim Hyon Sop for acting on behalf of the Kwangson Banking Corp, an entity previously designated for sanctions by the United States.<\/p>\n<p>Wu processed multiple transactions that converted millions of dollars worth of virtual currency, the statement said.<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. sanctions freeze any U.S. assets of the individuals and make those who do business with them liable to sanctions.<\/p>\n<p>U.S. Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson said North Korea &#8220;continues to exploit virtual currency and extensive illicit facilitation networks to access the international financial system and generate revenue.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Nelson said Washington was committed to holding accountable those who enable North Korea&#8217;s &#8220;destabilizing activities, especially in light of the three intercontinental ballistic missiles Pyongyang has launched this year alone.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Years of U.S.-led sanctions have failed to halt North Korea&#8217;s nuclear bomb and missile programs. The latest Treasury action was announced before a visit to the United States this week by South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol.<\/p>\n<p>A February report by U.S.-based blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis said North Korea-linked hackers such as those in the  Lazarus Group stole an estimated $1.7 billion in cryptocurrency heists attacks last year.<\/p>\n<p> (Reporting by David Brunnstrom; Additional reporting by Moira Warburton; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Grant McCool)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/us-sanctions-target-three\/file-photo-the-u-s-treasury-building-in-washington\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-content\/uploads\/Reuters_Direct_Media\/USOnlineReportWorldNews\/tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ3N0KJ-VIEWIMAGE.jpg\" alt=\"tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ3N0KJ-VIEWIMAGE\"><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States on Monday announced sanctions on three people it said were involved in laundering virtual currency stolen by North Korean hackers to help finance Pyongyang&#8217;s weapons programs. A U.S. Treasury statement said the three were a China-based virtual currency trader, another currency trader based in Hong Kong, and a representative of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":21694,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1222],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-u-s-world-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-content\/uploads\/Reuters_Direct_Media\/USOnlineReportWorldNews\/tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ3N0KJ-VIEWIMAGE.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21693"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21693\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21695,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21693\/revisions\/21695"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}