N Korea fires multiple missiles, denies US claims on Binance hack
North Korea fired several missiles into the Sea of Japan on Wednesday, hours after Pyongyang denied allegations that it was behind the theft of more than $6bn in crypto assets from Binance.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said it detected the launch of several missiles from the Sondok area on North Korea's eastern coast towards the Sea of Japan. Authorities in South Korea and the United States are analysing the details of the launches.
The tests marked Pyongyang's fourth such weapons launch in a month. They came a day after North Korea denied involvement in the Binance hack, dismissing an FBI announcement that North Korean hackers were responsible as "a trite provocation".
Binance, the world's biggest cryptocurrency exchange, said on Friday that hackers stole more than $6bn in what appears to be the largest cryptocurrency heist on record.
Pyongyang denies hacker role
The FBI later said North Korean hackers had orchestrated the theft, attributing it to a hacking group known as TraderTraitor, which was also behind a $1.5bn hack of the Bybit exchange last year.
It is our clear stand that we have no need to sit face to face with such unreliable and hostile persons.
Early on Wednesday, Kim Yo Jong said Pyongyang viewed the FBI announcement as "an extension of Washington's invariable hostile policy toward" North Korea. She ruled out dialogue with Washington until the US abandoned that policy.
"The choice for peace includes dialogue, of course, but this is not surely equated with national interests for us," she added.
Weapons testing and diplomacy
US President Donald Trump said in August that he plans to meet Kim Jong Un later this year, seeking to revive the bond he claims to have forged with the North Korean leader during his first term.
Previous rounds of talks between Kim and Trump in 2019 abruptly ended amid disagreements over Pyongyang's nuclear programme. In October, the US, South Korea and Japan again reiterated their call for the "complete denuclearisation" of the Korean Peninsula.
The call came as North Korea has accelerated its weapons testing this year, in what analysts say is likely a bid to increase its leverage in any future diplomacy with the US.
Its recent tests have included a submarine-launched ballistic missile, hypersonic missiles, attack drones, and cluster bombs designed to be carried by ballistic missiles. On Tuesday, Pyongyang said it had tested a new cluster warhead for strategic cruise missiles the previous day, claiming it could destroy an area of 5 to 6 hectares (12 to 15 acres) with "high-density power".
The latest launches followed a North Korean state media report that Kim had visited a naval shipyard building a destroyer and stressed the importance of a powerful navy.
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