South Korea’s Institute for National Security Strategy revealed that North Korea is using prohibited NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2700 graphics cards to power artificial intelligence research aimed at accelerating cryptocurrency theft operations. The findings, published between November 29 and November 30, 2025, come as crypto hacks totaled $172.5 million in November alone, according to blockchain security firm CertiK.
The INSS report details nearly three decades of AI development in North Korea, with recent studies from the National Academy of Sciences’ Mathematical Research Institute and Pyongyang Lee University focusing on facial recognition, multi-object tracking, voice synthesis, and accent identification. These capabilities could enable target identification, movement path prediction, and more efficient social engineering attacks—tactics already employed by North Korea-linked hacking groups like Lazarus.
Industrial-Scale Theft Operations
“Utilizing high-performance AI computational resources could exponentially increase attack and theft attempts per unit time, enabling a small number of personnel to conduct operations with efficiency and precision comparable to industrial-scale efforts,” the INSS report stated. Kim Min Jung, who heads the Advanced Technology Strategy Center at INSS, warned that “precise monitoring of North Korea’s AI research trends and policy responses to suppress the military and cyber diversion of related technologies are urgently needed”.
The GPUs are subject to complete export and re-export bans to North Korea under restrictions imposed by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. Despite these controls, North Korean researchers have obtained the hardware, raising questions about enforcement and potential cooperation with China and Russia.
Recent Crypto Heists Continue
The warning coincides with ongoing North Korean cyber operations. South Korean authorities are investigating the Lazarus Group’s suspected involvement in a $30 million theft from cryptocurrency exchange Upbit on November 27, 2025. North Korea-linked hackers have stolen over $2 billion in cryptocurrency in 2025, according to blockchain analysis firm Elliptic.
Of November’s $172.5 million in crypto losses, code vulnerabilities accounted for $130 million, with approximately $45.5 million frozen or recovered. The INSS researchers warned that deepening cooperation between North Korea, China, and Russia since the Ukraine conflict could accelerate AI deployment in military and cyber domains.