Senior diplomats from South Korea, Japan and the United States on Friday urged the international community to deport North Korean workers in accordance with U.N. sanctions and prevent Pyongyang from funding its nuclear and missile programs.
In a joint statement after their meeting in Seoul, the three envoys underscored the importance of blocking Pyongyang's "illicit revenue streams," including stealing foreign currency through illegal activities in cyberspace to finance its missile development.
"We reiterate with concern that overseas DPRK IT workers continue using forged identities and nationalities" to evade the U.N. Security Council sanctions and "earn income abroad that funds the DPRK's unlawful WMD and ballistic missile programs," the statement said.
DPRK stands for North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, while WMD is the acronym of weapons of mass destruction.
Kim Gunn, South Korea's special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs, met with his Japanese and U.S. counterparts, Takehiro Funakoshi and Sung Kim, as Pyongyang has shown no signs of stopping its frequent ballistic missile tests.
Fears have also been growing that the reclusive state may carry out its seventh nuclear test in the near future, which would be its first since September 2017.
The U.N. Security Council adopted a U.S.-led resolution in December 2017 demanding that all U.N. member states repatriate North Koreans working overseas within two years.
But many North Korean workers are believed to be in nations such as China and Russia, partly due to Pyongyang's border closure since January 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic.
"U.N. member states should be vigilant and ensure that no work authorizations are renewed or granted to overseas DPRK laborers" consistent with the sanctions resolution, the officials said.
The statement cited a private industry estimate that North Korea stole up to $1.7 billion in cryptocurrency in 2022.
The three diplomats also agreed that trilateral security cooperation should be strengthened to deal with threats posed by North Korea, while calling on it for dialogue.
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