Reportedly, the Workers’ Party of a North Korean organization created thousands of illegal online gambling websites. This is in cooperation with an unidentified South Korean cybercrime ring. The investigation appears to be ongoing.
The North Korean organization allegedly received KPW 6.5 million or 5000 US dollars for each created gambling website. Apart from this, KPW 4 million or 3000 US dollar to maintain them in the process. The organization, NIS suspects, received KPW 1.8 million to 6.5 million or 2000 to 5000 US dollars. This is when the website achieved a high number of users. The organization stated that it transferred an estimated amount of KPW 650000 or 500 US dollars per month to South Korea via Chinese bank accounts, Paypal, and other global online payment services.
NIS revealed that the South Korean clients resold the gambling websites to third parties. In the process, it allegedly earned several trillion won. The South Korean cybercrime ring also apparently provided domestic servers that enabled the North Korean IT specialists to hack into different foreign companies. This is to facilitate the transactions between China and the ROK. Moreover, criminal organizations reportedly utilized the websites and servers to steal personal data, conversations, and identifying information from approximately 1,110 users. They accomplished this by disguising their nationality or employing phishing techniques, such as incorporating malicious codes on their websites.
In a statement, the NIS disclosed concrete evidence to the public, revealing North Korea’s deep involvement in cyber gambling for the first time. This has recently become a serious social problem in South Korea. The agency now estimates that thousands more North Korean organizations are now developing cyber gambling schemes and selling them abroad to generate foreign currency for the regime. Most of these individuals are assumed to have settled illegally in China.
