South Korea Wants to Pass Bill to Freeze Crypto Used by North Korea

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has issued instructions to have a bill drafted that will contain practical measures to bolster South Korea’s national security by tracking and freezing cryptocurrencies and other virtual assets used by North Korea in order to cut the funding of Pyongyang’s weapons programs.

According to various government sources, the bill has been in the works for 10 months and is expected to add to the current sanctions imposed on the rogue state.

Meanwhile, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service reported that the North Korean hackers illegally gathered up to $180 million in cryptocurrency exploitations in the first half of this year, with an estimate of $1.28 billion worth of bitcoin and ether stolen in hacks in 2020.

Lazarus Group, a North Korean hacking organization, is under suspicion for the attack against CoinsPaid where a reported $37 million was taken.