According to BlockBeats, on July 25, the North Korean National Intelligence Service raided a safe house in Pyongyang on July 12, arresting a hacking gang that had infiltrated the internal networks of the Central Bank of North Korea and the Trade Bank. Sources in Pyongyang stated that the gang leader was a veteran of the cyber warfare unit under the General Bureau of Reconnaissance and Intelligence. They recruited young IT talents from Kim Chaek University of Technology and Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, using hacking skills honed in the military and universities to breach the heavily guarded internal networks and external payment systems of the two banks. They split stolen state trade funds into small amounts and transferred them to overseas cryptocurrency wallets, then exchanged them for cash through brokers. The gang also established bases in border areas such as Sinuiju in North Pyongan Province and Hyesan in Ryanggang Province to exchange the laundered cryptocurrency for US dollars in real time.

The group operated an encrypted transaction network in a secure building in Pyongyang for an extended period until officials from the Central Bank of North Korea discovered minor anomalies in foreign exchange payment approvals and suspicious records of logins from overseas IP addresses. The North Korean National Intelligence Service followed the trail, located the suspects, and raided the premises, arresting them on the spot. They seized computer equipment worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and a large number of unregistered disposable mobile phones. Subsequently, they sealed off the headquarters and computing centers of two banks and deployed mobile signal detection vehicles to track abnormal wireless frequencies.

The news caused a huge shock in Pyongyang's top leadership, military circles, and university circles. One official said, "The country trained them to use these skills to defend the motherland, but they plundered the national treasury. Not only will they face the death penalty, but their entire family lineage may also be unable to survive." The top leadership of the Reconnaissance and Intelligence Bureau and the science and technology education department are already nervous about the case, fearing that accountability will affect them.