North Korea strongly pushed back against a joint advisory on North Korean information technology (IT) workers released by 11 countries including Korea, the United States, and Japan, calling it "groundless slander."
Korean Central News Agency reported on the 4th that, in a statement by a Spokesperson for North Korea's Foreign Ministry, the "joint warning on North Korean cyber threats" released by the United States and its allies was claimed to be "a stereotyped political smear campaign born of an impudent intent to tarnish the image of our state."
The Spokesperson criticized, saying, "The malicious assertions by the participating countries of the Multinational Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT) are nothing but the spread of false information lacking credibility," and, "It is absurd in itself for the United States, which monopolizes the core resources of cyberspace and possesses and operates the world's largest cyber force, to bring up other countries' 'cyber threats.'"
The statement continued, "The responsibility for turning cyberspace into an arena of confrontation and intrigue lies with the United States," and argued, "The country that first created a Cyber Command, conducts combined cyber exercises with its allies, and is expanding offensive capabilities is also the United States."
It added, "We will not tolerate any attempt by the United States and hostile forces to politicize and ideologize cyber issues to criticize and pressure other countries."
The statement is seen as a response to the joint advisory released recently by 11 countries, including Korea, the United States, and Japan, on the illegal foreign-currency-earning activities of North Korean IT workers.
Earlier, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Korean National Police Agency released a joint advisory on the 31st of last month with relevant agencies from the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and New Zealand.
The participating countries said North Korea is deploying skilled IT workers overseas using false identities to earn foreign currency through remote work to fund its nuclear and ballistic missile development, and recommended that governments, corporations, and institutions in each country implement response measures such as strengthening identity verification procedures and actively detecting suspicious accounts.