The gap between the FBI's finding and the US president's scepticism gives Pyongyang room to portray Washington as incoherent.
North Korea has rejected the FBI's allegation that a Pyongyang-affiliated hacking group was behind the theft of US$6 billion from the cryptocurrency platform Binance, with Kim Jong-un's sister describing the claim as a "grave political provocation", according to a report by SCMP World. Kim Yo-jong, in a statement carried on Tuesday by the KCNA state news agency, said the FBI's assertion was "absurd rhetoric and nothing new", pointing to earlier US allegations that North Korea was responsible for last year's major hack of Bybit.
The FBI said on Saturday that a group it calls TraderTraitor, described as North Korea-affiliated, had carried out the Binance attack. The same group was blamed for a US$1.5 billion theft from Bybit in February last year, which the report notes had been the largest crypto theft until the Binance hack. Binance is the world's largest crypto exchange by daily trading volumes, and news of the attack caused the prices of most major cryptocurrencies to fall sharply on Friday.
Kim Yo-jong framed the accusation as part of a wider pattern. "It is a grave political provocation against the DPRK that the US misleads the international public opinion as if all the cybercrimes in different parts of the world are our deeds," she said, using the acronym for North Korea's official name. She called the FBI claim "a sinister attempt to damage the international image of the DPRK and undermine its dignity and national prestige and another grave violation of the sovereignty of the DPRK", while restating that it is "the consistent policy stand of the DPRK government to resolutely oppose all sorts of malicious acts in cyberspace".
The statement also drew attention to divisions in Washington's own messaging. After the FBI released its statement on Saturday, US President Donald Trump cast doubt on North Korea's involvement. "I'm not concerned. We're learning about it. We don't know if it's North Korea," Trump told reporters at his residence in Florida, according to the report. The report adds that Trump has made repeated overtures to nuclear-armed North Korea since returning to office and has said he is open to meeting Kim Jong-un this year, gestures that have met with silence from Pyongyang.
Kim Yo-jong said the new allegations "confirmed Washington's hostile attitude toward the DPRK once again", adding: "We have issues to reconsider in diverse aspects as regards the very unpleasant US hostile attitude." That language stops short of announcing any specific response, and the report gives no indication of what measures Pyongyang might take. Nor does it set out the technical evidence behind the FBI's attribution, or explain how the US$6 billion figure was calculated.
The episode matters beyond the crypto markets. Attribution of cyber-theft is difficult to verify publicly, and the gap between the FBI's finding and the US president's scepticism gives Pyongyang room to portray Washington as incoherent. It also complicates any prospect of renewed engagement, since a hacking dispute now sits alongside the nuclear file. What remains unconfirmed is the full evidence base for the TraderTraitor attribution and whether the Binance theft will alter the stalled diplomatic track.
