More than 40 countries impacted by North Korea IT worker scams, crypto thefts

A 140-page Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team report presented at a UN session ties North Korea’s IT worker identity-theft hiring scheme and billion-dollar cryptocurrency heists to funding its weapons programs, naming countries that host or facilitate these activities, estimating roughly 1,500 DPRK IT workers in China and 500 elsewhere, noting over $2B in crypto thefts last year (over $3B total reported by 2025), and documenting laundering via Chinese banks and purchases such as armored vehicles, petroleum and munitions-related copper.