North Korea’s theft of cryptocurrency accounts for as much as half of its foreign financing and plays a major role in bankrolling the regime’s nuclear ambitions, a new U.N. report states, estimating that DPRK cybercriminals have stolen $3 billion of virtual assets since 2017.

In an annual report published Wednesday, the U.N. Panel of Experts on the DPRK stated that it is investigating 58 cyberattacks allegedly carried out by Pyongyang against cryptocurrency services between 2017 and 2023, alongside other illicit cyber activities.

The wide-ranging report also highlighted North Korea’s continuing nuclear development and ballistic missile launches, illegal imports of restricted