PANews, June 18 – G7 leaders issued a joint statement expressing “deep concern” over North Korea’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs, and reaffirmed their commitment to advancing its “complete denuclearization” and implementing relevant UN Security Council resolutions. The statement urged North Korea to immediately resolve the issue of abducted Japanese and other nationals, and for the first time in a document at this level explicitly named North Korea’s cryptocurrency theft and cybercrime activities. The G7 called on all countries to strengthen intelligence sharing, regulation, and law enforcement cooperation to jointly combat the funding of weapons programs through hacking, money laundering, and virtual asset theft.
