Maiko Takeuchi, the board chair and chief executive officer of Compliance and Capacity Skills International Asia Pacific, emphasized the need for the United Nations Security Council to impose new sanctions on North Korea specifically targeting its cybercrime activities. However, she acknowledged that obstacles such as Russia’s war in Ukraine and growing tensions between the United States and China are making it difficult to enact these measures.
Takeuchi, a former defense policy official with Japan’s ministry of defense and a U.N. Security Council member of the Panel of Experts for North Korea, expressed concerns about the lack of new sanctions and designations against North Korea. While nine U.N. resolutions have been passed to sanction North Korea between 2006 and late 2017, no new measures have been enacted since. The council failed to impose punitive measures in May 2022 and February 2023 due to opposition from China and Russia, both of whom have veto power.
China and Russia, previously incentivized to support sanctions on North Korea, no longer have reasons to side with the United States. Russia is growing closer to North Korea amidst its war in Ukraine, potentially securing munitions from Pyongyang. China, North Korea’s important ally and largest trading partner, is unlikely to side with the United States without concessions.
Takeuchi explained that the North Korean issue could be used as leverage in negotiations between China, Russia, and the United States. However, she believes both China and Russia are hesitant to make a choice between supporting the U.S. or Russia.
While some argue for better enforcement of existing sanctions, Takeuchi believes that fully enforcing them would have a significant impact on North Korea. However, the current measures do not address Pyongyang’s malicious cyber activities, which have become a major source of funding for the regime’s nuclear and weapons programs. In 2022 alone, North Korean hackers stole $3.8 billion from cryptocurrency businesses.
Joseph Byrne, a research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, noted that North Korea works with criminal organizations to evade sanctions and use established networks to generate new revenue sources, including laundering cryptocurrencies. He referred to recent U.S. Department of Justice indictments that accuse North Koreans of using stolen funds to buy goods sent to North Korea.
Takeuchi highlighted the difficulty of proving that North Korea’s malicious cyber activities violate sanctions due to the anonymity provided by the internet. While activities such as stealing weapons of mass destruction technology are clear violations, stealing money from individual wallets is harder to prove. She expressed concern that North Korean hackers not only target people’s wallets but also seek their personal information for purposes such as blackmail or identity theft.
Takeuchi cited the 2017 WannaCry global ransomware attack as evidence of the scale of North Korean cyberintrusions. She also raised the possibility of hackers stealing personal information to impersonate targets online, particularly as remote work increases due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This aligns with North Korea’s past actions, such as the abduction of Japanese citizens and the use of impersonation to establish bases in other countries.
In conclusion, Takeuchi’s insights shed light on the need for new sanctions targeting North Korea’s cybercrime activities and the challenges presented by geopolitical factors.
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