How North Korea Makes Its Money
Restaurant Chains And Hackers: A Look Into North Korea
R. Zhang
NORTH KOREA HAS BEEN INTERNATIONALLY SANCTIONED, making it near impossible for them to trade with other countries. However, they still manage to fund and bankroll their country and economy, with some surprising methods. The main method, of course, is Russia and China’s economic support. Ever since the Korean War, it has been in China and Russia’s interests for North Korea to exist. This is because if North Korea didn’t exist, then South Korea would have full control over the Korean peninsula, and therefore, border China and Russia. South Korea has always been an ally of the United States, with U.S. weapons stationed in South Korea, so having a border with South Korea would be like having a border with the United States. North Korea acts as a buffer against South Korea for China and Russia.
Although this is the main source of income, there are some more interesting, and morally questionable ones. The first I’ll cover is North Korea’s chain of restaurants. Called Pyongyang, they serve North Korean cuisine at more than 100 venues, located mostly in Asia, charging more than a fair price. The profits are allegedly funnelled back to North Korea. They also have North Korean entertainers to perform and serve the customers, selected for their loyalty to the North Korean regime. However, all the staff there are monitored, to make sure they don’t escape, being forbidden to leave the premises. Even then, staff have been known to escape.
Another method of obtaining funds is North Korea’s infamous cyber division. They are an elite team of hackers, who specialise in stealing cryptocurrency from banks worldwide. They are estimated to have stolen over $600 million dollars, although the true amount could be much higher. The most notorious of these heists is when they attempted to steal nearly a billion dollars from the National Bank of Bangladesh. The national bank had nearly a billion dollars in a bank account located in the United States. The hackers disabled the printer at the Bank of Bangladesh, as transcripts of all transactions would be printed by this printer. They were able to gain access to all of the bank’s systems by sending an email to a bank employee, and having them download a virus that gave them access to the bank systems. From there, they were able to send a message to the U.S. Federal Bank, telling them to transfer their funds into another account. However, a mere coincidence prevented disaster. The safeguard system in place flagged some of the money transfers for human review due to the destination of the money using the word “Jupiter”, the name of a sanctioned Iranian ship. This meant that only $80 million dollars ended up in North Korean hands.
Overall, it is rather interesting how North Korea manages to economically stay afloat. Sanctions imposed on the nation have forced it to become creative in how it makes money and continue to sustain itself as a state.
