US, South Korea commit to better combat North Korean cyber threats

The U.S. and South Korea have committed to cooperate further in averting North Korean cybersecurity threats in a workgroup meeting held in Seoul following reports regarding North Korea's funneling of billions of dollars in cryptocurrency scam earnings to its nuclear program, The Korea Herald reports. Both the U.S. and South Korea came into agreement to coordinate with the financial industry and other countries to develop means to curb the actions of North Korea, which U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas claimed in testimony submitted to the House Committee on Homeland Security to have already stolen over $1 billion for its nuclear weapons program during the past two years. North Korea has also ramped up its cyberespionage activities, said FBI Director Christopher Wray during the House Homeland Security Committee hearing. "... North Korea has growing espionage in addition to theft and attack capability in some ways, sort of similar to Iran in recent years in particular, and especially targeting, as you say, financial institutions, cryptocurrency exchanges and so forth because they needed to fund their regime because of the effectiveness of the sanctions that otherwise exist," Wray added.