South Korean Prosecutors Say They Want to Buy New Crypto-tracking Tools

South Korea

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Tim Alper

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Tim Alper

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Tim Alper is a British journalist and features writer who has worked at Cryptonews.com since 2018. He has written for media outlets such as the BBC, the Guardian, and Chosun Ilbo. He has also worked...

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June 26, 2023 06:53 EDT

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Prosecutors in South Korea say they will spend money on crypto tracking tools – and have claimed that they will use these innovative solutions to crack down on money-laundering, crypto-powered drug deals, and kimchi premium trading.

According to Kookmin Ilbo, the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office of the Republic of Korea (SPO) said it was ready to buy “tracking” software that would let it monitor crypto transactions to “investigate cases involving cryptocurrencies.”

The media outlet explained that one of its new “trackers” is “capable of the real-time monitoring of transactions for cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin (BTC).” Prosecutors also stated that tools they would buy could help them “extract correlation data in multiple transactions,” and let them look at wallet and exchange-related transaction histories.

Prosecutors explained that the tools would let them “check when, to whom, and to where cryptocurrency is being sent.”

War on Kimchi Premium Traders & Crypto-powered Drug Deals

Prosecutors are currently investigating about $7 billion worth of what they suspect to be illegally remitted, crypto-linked foreign exchange transactions. Much of this, they believe, was sent abroad by illegal kimchi premium traders who bought low-price BTC from over-the-counter traders in Japan and China before “dumping” the coins on domestic exchanges for gains of 30% or more.

Using “shell companies” as a front, the traders have then allegedly used funds to buy semiconductors and precious metals from overseas vendors.

The prosecution is also keen to close down networks of drug traders who make use of darkweb portals and the Telegram chat app to buy and sell narcotics.

Probes into both kimchi premium traders and drug rings are sill ongoing in conjunction with the regulatory the Financial Supervisory Service and the National Tax Service. A number of crypto-using drug offenders have already been convicted, but the hunt continues for darkweb operators and a number of suspected drug dealers.

According to data collected by the National Police Agency and made public by the MP Kang Seon-woo of the Democratic Party, the number of domestic drug offenders using cryptoassets increased over x8 from 2018 to at least 696 in August this year.