North Korea calls US claims over the Binance hack 'absurd rhetoric'

North Korea rejected US accusations that it stole more than $6 billion from Binance in the record October 29 theft, with Kim Yo Jong, the sister of leader Kim Jong Un, calling them "absurd rhetoric" in a statement carried by the state Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Tuesday, November 3, Korea time, according to Reuters and Australian Associated Press.

What North Korea said

The statement responded to the FBI's October 31 attribution, which named the North Korean hacking operation TraderTraitor as responsible for the theft.

"But the US assertion is an absurd rhetoric and nothing new," Kim said, according to Reuters. She called it "a grave political provocation against the DPRK."

Kim said the FBI was "trying to brand the DPRK as a 'cyber criminal state,'" according to Reuters and AAP. DPRK is the abbreviation of North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The evidence question

Neither side has made its case in public detail. The FBI did not disclose the evidence behind its attribution, The Block reported. Private blockchain analytics firms, including TRM Labs and Chainalysis, had linked the theft to TraderTraitor before the FBI spoke, BleepingComputer reported. North Korea's statement disputed the motive behind the accusation rather than the technical findings.

Why it matters

In our assessment, the denial is unlikely to change how exchanges and stablecoin issuers treat the stolen funds. The addresses the FBI published remain the basis for blocking and freezing.

What it could mean for traders

In our assessment, diplomatic statements like this one are unlikely to move crypto prices directly. What matters for the market is how much of the stolen value the attackers can move and sell; see how they are laundering the funds.