Hacked_North_Koreas_Billion-Dollar_Crypto_Heisting_Scheme.pdf (644 KB)

The Penn State law article examines how North Korea uses cryptocurrency theft, especially against decentralized finance platforms, as an alternative revenue source under sanctions tied to its weapons programs. It argues that DeFi’s limited consumer protections, transparency challenges, user-identification gaps, and rapid growth make it attractive to capable state-backed actors. The excerpt states that the DPRK has weaponized its cyber infrastructure to exploit weaknesses in DeFi platforms and stole more than $1 billion from DeFi protocols in 2022 alone. The article frames North Korea’s crypto theft as both a cybercrime and sanctions-evasion problem, then considers regulatory and treaty-based responses involving the United States, Japan, and South Korea.