No talks yet on sanctions over N. Korea's alleged Binance theft: unification ministry official

SEOUL, Nov. 5 (Yonhap) -- The government has not begun discussing sanctions on North Korea over its alleged theft of a massive amount of cryptocurrency, a unification ministry official said Thursday.

"As of now, the government has not fully grasped the exact circumstances of the hacking case, so a discussion on how to respond to it has not even begun," the official told reporters at the government complex in Seoul.

"Internal sharing and discussion inside the government are needed, but we have not reached that stage," the official added.

Last week, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said North Korea was responsible for the theft of more than US$6 billion in cryptocurrency from Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange.

Earlier this week, Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, rejected the accusation, calling it a "grave political provocation" against the North.

North Korea has been blamed for cyber thefts before and has consistently denied any involvement.

Separately, Unification Minister Chung Dong-young has opposed sanctions proposed against the North over the Sept. 21 land mine blast inside the Demilitarized Zone that wounded three South Korean soldiers, two of them seriously.

Opposition parties have criticized him as being too lenient toward Pyongyang, while Chung has said such a measure would only provoke the North without producing any positive outcome.