Kim Yo Jong, sister of Kim Jong Un and a senior official of the ruling Workers' Party, issued Pyongyang's first response to the Binance theft, calling the US accusations "an absurd and groundless rumor" and a customary provocation.

The FBI had named North Korea's TraderTraitor group as responsible for stealing $6.3B in crypto from Binance on or about October 29, the largest crypto heist on record.

Kim pointed to the Bybit hack, also attributed to North Korea, as an example of Washington linking every cybercrime to Pyongyang, and suggested that whoever ends up receiving the recovered funds would reveal the real culprit.

She added that Pyongyang is watching the situation closely and that the US hostile stance toward North Korea needs to be reconsidered "from various angles".