A team of experts has exposed a clandestine connection between North Korea and Tornado Cash, a cryptocurrency mixer, in a massive crypto laundering operation. The experts, part of a United Nations panel, discovered that North Korea utilized Tornado Cash to launder a staggering $147.5 million in hacked cryptocurrency in the first half of this year alone.

The report, presented to the UN Security Council sanctions committee, revealed that North Korea has been orchestrating cyberattacks on cryptocurrency companies since 2017, targeting a whopping $3.6 billion in assets. The expert team, which was disbanded in April, investigated 97 suspected cyberattacks, including the high-profile $147.5 million theft from the Seychelles-based crypto exchange HTX in 2022. The stolen funds were allegedly laundered through Tornado Cash in March, according to crypto analysis firms PeckShield and Elliptic.

The report also highlighted that North Korea has been recruiting IT workers from small crypto-related companies, unaware of their true intentions, to carry out these attacks. The U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) had previously imposed sanctions on Tornado Cash in 2022, citing its involvement in laundering over $7 billion in cryptocurrency, including $455 million seized by the notorious North Korean hacker group Lazarus Group.

North Korea's motives behind these cyberattacks are believed to be funding its nuclear and missile programs, raising concerns about the rogue state's increasing reliance on crypto laundering to support its illicit activities. The developer of Tornado Cash has recently faced penalties, and the incident serves as a stark reminder of the need for enhanced security measures in the cryptocurrency space.