In a significant move to curb illicit financial activities, the United States announced on Tuesday a series of sanctions targeting individuals and entities involved in laundering money from cybercrime schemes, which allegedly fund North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) revealed that North Korean state-sponsored hackers have siphoned over $3 billion in digital assets over the past three years, a sum unparalleled by any other foreign actor. This revelation was further supported by a comprehensive 138-page international report published last month. Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, John K. Hurley, emphasized that these cybercriminal activities are directly linked to financing North Korea’s nuclear ambitions. The sanctioned network includes banking representatives, financial institutions, and shell companies spread across North Korea, China, Russia, and other regions, which facilitate money laundering through IT worker fraud, cryptocurrency heists, and sanctions evasion. Among those targeted are eight individuals and two firms, including North Korean bankers Jang Kuk Chol and Ho Jong Son, accused of managing funds, including $5.3 million in cryptocurrency, for the sanctioned First Credit Bank. The Treasury Department had previously warned U.S. firms in 2022 about hiring highly skilled North Koreans who disguise their identities to infiltrate financial networks, often posing as remote IT workers.