The United States, South Korea, and Japan have agreed to continue sharing intelligence on North Korea’s cyber theft operations and money laundering activities facilitated by third-party collaborators, with plans to enhance efforts to track and impose sanctions on those involved.
On September 6, the U.S. Department of State announced that the three governments held the third meeting of the Trilateral Diplomatic Working Group to counter cyber threats posed by North Korea.
Leading the discussions were U.S. Deputy Special Representative for the DPRK Seth Bailey, ROK Ministry of Foreign Affairs Director General for Korean Peninsula Policy Lee Jun-il, and Japanese Ambassador in charge of Cyber Policy Kumagai Naoki.
“The group reviewed the substantial progress made in deepening trilateral collaboration to disrupt the DPRK’s ability to generate and launder revenue through malicious cyber activity, IT workers, and third-party facilitators, which it uses to fund its unlawful weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs,” the State Department said in a press release.
“Through the working group, the United States, the ROK, and Japan will continue to coordinate on a wide range of trilateral actions, underscoring the historic cooperation established at the Camp David Summit, including efforts to prevent DPRK cryptocurrency heists, disrupt IT worker networks, engage partners on the DPRK cyber threat, and develop trilateral capacity building assistance efforts.”
The State Department added that the three sides also discussed their approach to autonomous sanctions and the importance of private industry efforts to address DPRK cyber issues.
BY YOUNGNAM KIM [kim.youngnam@koreadaily.com]
