North Korean cybercriminals snatched tens of millions in cryptocurrency from a South Korean exchange in a 2019 heist, ROK police announced on Thursday, confirming for the first time that Pyongyang was behind the attack.

The case dates back to Nov. 2019, when the South Korean crypto exchange Upbit lost 342,000 ethereum tokens worth some US$50 million (58 billion won) to cybercriminals. The same quantity of ethereum is now worth some $1 billion thanks to a twentyfold increase in its price.

While the perpetrator was unclear at the time, a yearslong investigation by the ROK police’s cyber terror division has found