Why hacking became North Korea’s favourite sport

Cybercriminals are hard to pin down and hacking has become a huge moneyspinner for Pyongyang.

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People at a Seoul railway station watch a broadcast of Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, denied allegations that Pyongyang hacked Binance.

PHOTO: REUTERS

Robert Kelly

Published Nov 05, 2026, 12:00 PM

Updated Nov 05, 2026, 12:00 PM

Last week, hackers stole US$6.3 billion (S$8.1 billion) from Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, in about 20 minutes. They entered via one engineer’s laptop. The US government blames a North Korean hacking unit known as TraderTraitor. Analysts are calling it the single largest threat ever.

The scale is extraordinary. North Korea’s GDP is about US$34 billion, according to South Korea’s central bank. Its exports last year were around US$470 million. In a single raid, Pyongyang’s hackers took nearly a fifth of the country’s annual income – and 13 years’ worth of its exports. Nearly US$3 billion was frozen within hours, mostly by stablecoin issuers, but over US$3 billion still slipped away – about 10% of North Korean GDP. By TRM Labs’ count, North Korea has stolen US$7.4 billion in crypto this year and US$12.8 billion since 2017. Cyber theft may represent one-third or even half of Pyongyang’s foreign currency.

Hacking

Cyber security

North Korea

Cryptocurrencies