North Korea Needs Its Own National Crypto, CBDC Fever Spreads in Asia

All for cryptocurrencies?In recent years, North Korea has become very interested in creating its own cryptocurrency and has a sufficient level of competence to move forward with this plan, as Alejandro Cao de Benos, a special representative of the Foreign Ministry of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, said.

On Sept. 10, Cao de Benos tweeted that the North Korean authorities have allowed citizens to own cryptocurrencies, and local developers "Are designing crypto wallets and other related apps right now."

Why North Korea may need its own cryptocurrency?According to Kayla Izenman, a research analyst at the Center for Financial Crime and Security, the country has the necessary experience and resources to launch its own cryptocurrency.

"The cryptocurrency is the ideal form of money for North Korea because it can be moved quickly and anonymously across borders and can be used to buy goods and services online or converted to hard currency."

It's the U.S. authorities that forced North Korea to use cryptocurrencies, as suggested by Jose Pagliery, a CNN investigative reporter, who said, "The UN and the international community have locked them out of banks so whereas they used to hack into the SWIFT system in banks."

The authors of the report claimed that the government of Kim Jong Un hacked the accounts of banks and cryptocurrency exchanges in 17 countries in order to finance weapons of mass destruction programs, claims which the North Korean regime strongly denied.

"DPRK can create their own cryptocurrencies or use established ones like Bitcoin. Having their own cryptocurrency would also facilitate their ability to open online accounts under the guise of a non-adversarial nation using anonymous communication to conceal the user's locations and usage on the internet."

In April of this year, North Korea held the nation's first international conference on blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies, bringing together foreign experts from around the world.

Independent and anonymous analysts in South Korea believe that the main objective of the Pyongyang Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Conference is to show that North Korea will develop and promote cryptocurrencies if the U.S. does not begin to move forward in bilateral negotiations.

Whether a national cryptocurrency would help North Koreans get out of its current economic troubles remains under question, considering other countries' experience in this direction.