North Korea has denied allegations that it orchestrated the $6.3 billion hack of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, describing the claims as “absurd rhetoric” and accusing the United States (US) of attempting to damage its international image.
Kim Yo Jong, a senior North Korean official and sister of leader Kim Jong Un, issued the statement on Tuesday, rejecting claims that Pyongyang was behind the cyberattack, which investigators have described as the largest cryptocurrency hack in history.
Kim, who serves as director of North Korea’s General Affairs Department, said that Washington DC had again attempted to link the country to cybercrime without evidence.
“The US has made a trite provocation of linking it with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea again,” she said.
She described the allegations as a “grave political provocation” and accused Washington of misleading international public opinion by portraying North Korea as responsible for cyberattacks around the world.
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Secret Service and blockchain analysts have attributed the Binance attack to North Korea. Investigators identified state-backed hacking group TraderTraitor, also known as the Lazarus Group, as responsible for the breach.
The FBI has also urged industry partners to block transactions involving cryptocurrency accounts linked to the group.
The allegations follow several other major cyber attacks attributed to North Korea, which has faced accusations of using cybercrime to generate revenue for its sanctioned economy. Pyongyang has repeatedly rejected claims of involvement.
The TraderTraitor group was also blamed for the $1.5 billion hack of cryptocurrency exchange Bybit in 2025, a record at the time.
In response to the latest allegations, Kim reiterated Pyongyang’s position on cybercrime, saying that it remained committed to opposing malicious activities in cyberspace.
“It is the consistent policy stand of the DPRK government to resolutely oppose all sorts of malicious acts in cyberspace,” she said.
Meanwhile, Binance has focused its public statements on the technical aspects of the breach and measures taken to protect users.
A company spokesperson said that a net $4.72 billion had been withdrawn from the exchange since transactions resumed on Sunday. However, the spokesperson described the outflow as a “relatively limited portion” of Binance’s total assets, which stood at approximately $157 billion.
The figure reflected the combined impact of the hack, subsequent withdrawals and changes in market prices.
The spokesperson added that withdrawal levels were stabilising and returning to what the company considered normal on-chain activity.
Binance stated that initial checks indicated that an engineer’s laptop had been compromised, allowing an attacker to make unauthorised withdrawals.
The exchange has since resumed trading in major cryptocurrencies after working with issuers to freeze assets affected by the breach. Binance has also repeatedly stated that it will cover all losses linked to the attack and has so far covered around 95 percent of the stolen assets.
