North Korea calls US accusation over Binance heist a ‘provocation’

North Korea denied any involvement in the recent $6.3 billion hack of cryptocurrency exchange platform Binance despite the FBI attributing the cyberattack to the country over the weekend.

In a statement Tuesday , Kim Yo Jong, the influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, called the accusations against Pyongyang “a trite provocation.”

“This is not the first time that the U.S. has attempted to spread misunderstanding of the DPRK in the international community, blindly linking the DPRK with the ‘cyber crime’ incidents whenever they occur on an international scale,” she said, using an acronym for the country’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Last week, money started unexpectedly moving out of Binance wallets, prompting the company to suspend all deposits and withdrawals. It also led other cryptocurrency firms to freeze around $3 billion in assets .

By Saturday, Binance announced it was able to replenish 90 percent of the stolen assets, adding the remaining 10 percent consists of assets that “are less liquid, which means they may take longer to source in the required amounts.”

The company also said it will absorb the financial impact of the stolen funds, not the users.

President Trump said Friday the administration was looking into the incident. When asked if the hack should be attributed to a suspected North Korean hacker group, the president said, “We don’t know.”

But the next day, the FBI announced North Korea was responsible for the Binance hack.

“This is a sinister attempt to damage the international image of the DPRK and undermine its dignity and national prestige,” the North Korean leader’s sister said, before adding the country’s government opposes “all sorts of malicious acts in cyberspace.”

Blockchain intelligence firms TRM Labs and Chainalysis previously said a North Korea-based cybercrime group, TraderTraitor, appeared to be behind the hacking incident.

TRM Labs also noted that several aspects of the latest hack matched earlier North Korea-linked incidents , like the $1.5 billion hack of crypto exchange Bybit last year.

In Saturday’s release , the FBI said it “has observed TraderTraitor actors converting stolen assets primarily into Ether (ETH). It is expected these assets will then be further laundered by converting them using DeFi and instant swap services as they prepare them for further laundering stages.”