Intensified curtailment of North Korean cyber threats sought by US

United Nations member states have been urged by the U.S. to tighten their imposition of sanctions to combat North Korea's IT worker scheme and cryptocurrency heists meant to support the country's nuclear and ballistic weapons program, reports The Record, a news site by cybersecurity firm Recorded Future.

"Too many countries are failing to implement UN sanctions designed to prevent exactly this sort of activity. A North Korean IT worker can live in Laos, steal the identity of a Ukrainian online, and then use that identity to defraud a U.S. company into hiring them often for remote jobs with salaries in the hundreds of thousands of dollars range," said State Department Principal Deputy Assistant Jonathan Fritz in a session ahead of a UN meeting in New York.

Over 40 countries were noted by an October report to be impacted by the North Korean cyber threats, with the country being assisted in its exploits by China, Russia, Cambodia, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea, Laos, Nigeria, and Tanzania. Such a discussion led by the U.S. in the UN session while the country withdrew from several UN organizations has been criticized by North Korea's Permanent Mission to the UN.