North Korea plays by its own rules. The isolated, secretive and autocratic country is largely cut off from the world’s economic system – but when it comes to generating foreign earnings it relies on some of the world’s most sophisticated hacking.

Experts, such as TRM Labs, quickly attributed the extraordinary $6.3bn (£4.7bn) Binance cryptocurrency theft to TraderTraitor, an elite North Korean hacking unit that has also been known as the Lazarus Group. Though the link may not be proven yet, the pattern of behaviour is familiar.

North Korea has a history of cryptocurrency theft dating back to 2017, focusing on the sector’s relatively lax security controls as a way of stealing money and generating revenues for its military, including its nuclear weapons programme.

Kim Jong-un, its dictatorial ruler, controls a stockpile of about 50 nuclear warheads, and has been supplying troops and weapons to help Russia in its war in Ukraine.…