The United States, South Korea and Japan expressed deep concern over North Korea's "malicious" cyber activities to support its weapons programmes, in comments released in a joint statement on Friday, Trend reports citing Reuters.
Crypto currency funds stolen by North Korean hackers have been a key source for financing the sanctions-stricken country's weapons programmes, officials and experts in the U.S. and its allies say.
Amid North Korea's rising nuclear and missile threats, South Korea's nuclear envoy held talks with his U.S. and Japanese counterparts in Seoul this week and condemned the isolated country's weapons tests.
"We reiterate with concern that overseas DPRK IT workers continue using forged identities and nationalities" to evade U.N. sanctions and raise funds for missile programmes, according to the envoys' joint statement, using the acronym for North Korea's official name.
"We are also deeply concerned about how the DPRK supports these programmes by stealing and laundering funds as well as gathering information through malicious cyber activities," the statement said, urging U.N. member states to comply with U.N. Security Council resolutions to repatriate North Korean workers on their soil.