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On February 21st 2025, employees at the Dubai-based cryptocurrency exchange ByBit approved what looked like a routine transaction. The interface showed the correct destination. Multiple signatories signed off. Everything looked normal.

$1.5 billion vanished in seconds — routed to wallets controlled by North Korean state hackers.

This is the story of the Lazarus Group: the elite cyber unit that has become Kim Jong Un's most valuable asset. While North Korea's legitimate economy exports wigs and fake eyelashes, its hackers steal billions. The money funds missiles, nuclear submarines, and a weapons programme that sanctions were supposed to make impossible.

How did the world's most isolated country build one of its most sophisticated hacking operations? And why can't anyone stop them?