Group of Seven (G7) leaders have renewed their name for joint motion towards North Korean cryptocurrency thefts and cybercrime.
In a press release adopted at this week’s G7 summit in Évian-les-Bains, France, the leaders expressed “deep concern” over North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile applications. The United Nations and safety researchers have linked North Korea’s crypto thefts to funding for the nation’s weapons applications.
The G7 leaders didn’t specify how members ought to act on the decision, making no point out of measures corresponding to trade screening, sanctions or actions towards mixing companies usually mentioned in reference to North Korean crypto laundering.
The G7 additionally referenced North Korean cryptocurrency thefts after its June 2025 summit in Canada, when the group’s chair known as for members to collectively tackle “DPRK cryptocurrency thefts fueling” the nation’s nuclear and ballistic missile applications.
The renewed name comes amid a sequence of high-profile exploits with suspected hyperlinks to North Korean actors, together with the roughly $285 million Drift Protocol exploit in April and the $36 million Humanity Protocol breach in June.
DPRK hack actions from 2016 to 2025. Supply: Chainalysis
North Korean hackers stole $2 billion in 2025
North Korean hackers stole at the least $2 billion in crypto in 2025, in accordance with Chainalysis, pushing the all-time complete attributed to DPRK-affiliated actors to at the least $6.75 billion.
Chainalysis mentioned the hackers generated larger returns final yr, regardless of finishing up fewer confirmed assaults, usually by embedding info know-how employees inside crypto corporations or impersonating recruiters and traders to acquire entry to inner programs.
Associated: North Korea ‘industrialized’ crypto theft, laundered billions: CertiK
On Could 15, a CrowdStrike report described North Korean actors as the most important menace group concentrating on crypto customers by worth stolen. The cybersecurity firm mentioned the campaigns prioritized high-value targets, with proceeds “virtually actually laundered to fund the regime’s navy applications.”
In the meantime, North Korea has rejected the allegations that it poses a cyber menace. In a Could 3 assertion printed by state information company KCNA, a Overseas Ministry spokesperson accused the US of spreading false info and described claims of a North Korean cyber menace as politically motivated “slander.”
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