North Korea has stolen up to $2 billion from banks and cryptocurrency exchanges through cyberattacks to fund its nuclear missiles program, according to a United Nations report seen by AFP Wednesday.

The UN is investigating at least 35 reported instances of Pyongyang "attacking financial institutions, cryptocurrency exchanges and mining activity designed to earn foreign currency," it said.

"Large-scale attacks against cryptocurrency exchanges allow the DPRK to generate income in ways that are harder to trace and subject to less government insight and regulation than the traditional banking sector," the report added.

North Korea has launched four pairs of projectiles in less than two weeks and threatened more, amid fears it is ramping up its missiles program.

Leader Kim Jong Un says the country's latest missile launches on Tuesday were a warning to Washington and Seoul over their joint war games, state news agency KCNA reported, as tensions rise on the Korean peninsula.

"Cyber actors, many operating under the direction of the Reconnaissance General Bureau (North Korea's intelligence agency), raise money for its WMD (weapons of mass destruction) programmes, with total proceeds to date estimated at up to two billion US dollars," said the UN report.

It added that North Korea is violating UN sanctions by buying luxury goods and equipment related to weapons development through "ongoing illicit ship-to-ship transfers."

"These and other sanctions are facilitated through the DPRK's access to the global financial system, through bank representatives and networks operating worldwide.

"The DPRK has also used cyberspace to launch increasingly sophisticated attacks to steal funds from financial institutions and cryptocurrency exchanges to facilitate income," said the report.

The study, prepared for the UN Security Council's North Korea sanctions committee, also highlighted intelligence showing that Pyongyang had transferred petroleum and coal in violation of resolutions.

The Security Council has imposed a number of sanctions on North Korea since the country conducted its first nuclear test in 2006.

Pyongyang and Washington are engaged in a long-running diplomatic process over the North's nuclear and missile programs that has seen US President Donald Trump and Kim hold two historic summits.

The North made a vague pledge on denuclearization during the first meeting in June last year.

A second summit in Hanoi this February broke up amid disagreements over sanctions relief and what Pyongyang might be willing to give up in return.

The two agreed to resume nuclear talks during their impromptu June meeting in the Demilitarized Zone that divides the peninsula, but working-level dialogue has yet to begin.

Sri Lanka army spies charged over journalist attack
Colombo (AFP) Aug 7, 2019 - Sri Lanka on Wednesday charged two army spies for a decade-old serious assault of a newspaper editor in the wake of the shock assassination of high-profile anti-establishment journalist Lasantha Wickrematunge.

Rivira editor Upali Tennakoon and his wife were lucky to survive the attack in January 2009 outside the capital Colombo as they drove to work.

It was the latest in a string of violent attacks against journalists in Sri Lanka, and came two weeks after Wickrematunge was ambushed and stabbed to death as he drove to his office.

Prosecutors told a magistrate that the two suspects, military intelligence officers Prema Ananda Udulagama and Rajapaksage Lalith Rajapakse, used sharp and blunt instruments to assault the Thennakoons.

"The officers were attached to the Tripoli Military Intelligence platoon of the Sri Lanka army," Attorney-General's department spokeswoman Nishara Jayaratne said.

Investigators have said that Wickrematunge was assassinated by members of the same military intelligence unit.

But a decade after his death, no-one has been indicted over the incident, which sparked international outrage.

Wickrematunge, a prominent critic of the former administration, was stabbed days before he was due to testify in a corruption case involving the then-defence ministry secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse.

The killing shone a light on human rights violations in Sri Lanka under former president Mahinda Rajapakse, Gotabhaya's brother.

Wickrematunge had accused the former defence secretary of taking kickbacks in arms procurements, including the purchase of second-hand MiG jet fighters.

Rajapakse has been accused of giving orders to a shadowy military outfit allegedly involved in murdering journalists and political dissidents during Sri Lanka's long-running civil war to carry out hits, an allegation he denies.

He is expected to contest the presidential elections due later this year.

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