Arab News | N. Korea slams FBI allegations over Binance hack as ‘grave’ provocation

SEOUL: North Korea on Tuesday slammed the FBI’s allegations that Pyongyang was behind the theft of $6 billion from cryptocurrency platform Binance, with Kim Jong Un’s powerful sister labelling it a “grave political provocation.”

Kim Yo Jong, in a statement released Tuesday by the KCNA state news agency, said the FBI’s claim was “absurd rhetoric and nothing new,” given prior US allegations that North Korea was behind last year’s major hack of Bybit.

“It is a grave political provocation against the DPRK that the US misleads the international public opinion as if all the cybercrimes in different parts of the world are our deeds,” Kim said, using the acronym for North Korea’s official name.

The FBI said on Saturday that a North Korea-affiliated hacking group called TraderTraitor had been behind the hack.

TraderTraitor is the same group blamed for a $1.5 billion theft from the Bybit platform in February last year, which had been the largest crypto theft until the Binance hack.

“This is a sinister attempt to damage the international image of the DPRK and undermine its dignity and national prestige and another grave violation of the sovereignty of the DPRK,” Kim said.

“It is the consistent policy stand of the DPRK government to resolutely oppose all sorts of malicious acts in cyberspace,” she added.

Binance is the world’s largest crypto exchange by daily trading volumes. News of the hacking attack caused the prices of most major cryptocurrencies to fall sharply on Friday.

After the FBI released its statement on Saturday, US President Donald Trump cast doubt on North Korea’s involvement in the hack.

“I’m not concerned. We’re learning about it. We don’t know if it’s North Korea,” Trump told reporters at his residence in Florida.

Trump has made repeated overtures to nuclear-armed North Korea since returning to office, and said he was open to meeting with supreme leader Kim Jong Un this year.

Those gestures have been met with silence from Pyongyang.

Kim Yo Jong, in her statement, said the new allegations “confirmed Washington’s hostile attitude toward the DPRK once again.”

“We have issues to reconsider in diverse aspects as regards the very unpleasant US hostile attitude,” she added.