N.Korea uses cyber attacks to update nukes

North Korea has modernised its nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles by flaunting United Nations sanctions, using cyber attacks to help finance its programs and continuing to seek material and technology overseas for its arsenal including in Iran, UN experts say.

The panel of experts monitoring sanctions on the northeast Asian nation say in a report sent to Security Council members Monday that North Korea's "total theft of virtual assets from 2019 to November 2020 is valued at approximately $US316.4 million".

The panel says its investigations found North Korea-linked cyber actors continued to conduct operations in 2020 against financial institutions and virtual currency exchange houses to generate money to support its weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs.

The experts previously reported on the continuous involvement in Iran of the Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation, North Korea's primary arms dealer and main exporter of goods and equipment related to ballistic missiles and conventional weapons that are under UN sanctions.

In the new report, the experts quote an unidentified country as saying North Korea and Iran "have resumed co-operation on long-range missile development projects ... said to have included the transfer of critical parts, with the most recent shipment associated with this relationship taking place in 2020".

Iran replied on December 21 that "preliminary review of the information provided to us by the panel indicates that false information and fabricated data may have been used in investigations and analyses of the panel", the experts say.

In North Korea's weapons development, Kim Jong Un's government has also produced fissile material - an essential ingredient for producing nuclear weapons - and maintained its nuclear facilities.

"It displayed new short-range, medium-range, submarine-launched and intercontinental ballistic missile systems at military parades," the experts say.

"It announced preparation for testing and production of new ballistic missile warheads and, development of tactical nuclear weapons ... and upgraded its ballistic missile infrastructure."

The panel recommends the Security Council impose sanctions on four North Korean men: Choe Song Chol, Im Song Sun, Pak Hwa Song, and Hwang Kil Su.

The Security Council has imposed increasingly tough sanctions on North Korea since its first test explosion of a nuclear device in 2006.