The denial followed an announcement by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that a North Korean state-backed hacking group was responsible for the October 29 attack on Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.

Kim Yo Jong, the influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and a senior ruling party official, dismissed the allegation in a statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Tuesday.

She accused Washington of attempting to portray North Korea, officially known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), as responsible for cybercrimes committed around the world.

“The US assertion is absurd rhetoric and nothing new,” Kim said, according to KCNA.

She described the accusation as a “grave political provocation” and alleged that the United States was misleading international public opinion by attributing cyberattacks to Pyongyang.

The FBI said on Saturday that the attack was carried out by TraderTraitor, a hacking operation it identified as being linked to North Korea. The agency urged cryptocurrency businesses and other industry operators to identify and block transactions involving digital wallets associated with the group.

The reported breach affected approximately $6.3bn in digital assets, making it potentially the largest cryptocurrency theft on record.

Blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs estimated that about $6.36bn was transferred from Binance wallets across 10 blockchain networks, with most of the transactions taking place within approximately 20 minutes, according to reporting by the Associated Press.

Binance initially said its investigation suggested that an engineer’s laptop might have been compromised, allowing an attacker to gain access to internal systems and initiate unauthorised withdrawals.

The exchange later reported identifying additional points of breach and said it was working with law enforcement agencies and industry partners to trace and recover the affected assets.

Binance also said it had committed company funds to cover the losses and was working to restore confidence in its platform. Some of the affected assets have been frozen through cooperation with cryptocurrency companies and other partners.

The FBI’s attribution adds to previous allegations that North Korean-linked hacking groups have targeted cryptocurrency platforms to obtain funds for the isolated country’s economy and weapons programmes.

In February 2025, the FBI also attributed the theft of approximately $1.5bn from cryptocurrency exchange Bybit to TraderTraitor.

North Korea has repeatedly denied allegations linking it to international cyberattacks.

The latest exchange of accusations comes amid growing international concern about the scale of cryptocurrency theft and the difficulty of tracing digital assets once they have been moved through multiple platforms.

The investigation into the Binance breach and efforts to recover the affected funds are continuing.