Likelihood of Connection with North Korea Low
The Seoul Regional Customs announced on Aug. 30 that it has uncovered 2.0715 trillion won of cryptocurrency-related illegal foreign exchange transactions as a result of its inspection that started in February.
“The transactions are likely to be related to arbitrage trading to take advantage of the so-called kimchi premium and the likelihood of connection with North Korea or terrorists is rather low,” it explained, adding, “The transaction types include remittance disguised as trade payment, unregistered transaction, illegal proxy remittance and illegal withdrawal abroad.” According to the authority, the respective volumes are 1.3040 trillion won, 318.8 billion won, 380 billion won and 68.7 billion won.
The detected cases also include large-scale overseas remittances through South Korean banks, which are currently under investigation by the Financial Supervisory Service. The two authorities are looking into those cases together.