Many friends are puzzled about how North Korea, such a closed-off country, has hackers with such insane skills. This year, North Korean hackers stole a total of $2 billion from the crypto world to fund the great endeavors of their generals, with ETH accounting for 75% of the loot. Some people jokingly say the next ETHDenver should be held in Pyongyang, but actually, North Korea already hosted one. Here’s an interesting story: back in 2019, during the 'Pyongyang Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Conference,' eight foreign experts, including Ethereum Foundation core researcher Virgil Griffith, defied the U.S. State Department’s refusal and traveled to North Korea for a two-day academic seminar. Upon returning to the U.S., they were arrested and admitted to conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, resulting in a 63-month prison sentence. Virgil was just released this year. According to documents disclosed by the U.S. Department of Justice at the time, the audience included many North Korean government officials and security experts. Virgil specifically explained how to use smart contracts to evade U.S. sanctions. After the conference, he even tried to persuade other U.S. citizens to travel to North Korea to provide similar services and discussed the possibility of setting up Ethereum mining facilities within North Korea. It’s likely the generals listened and thought: 'Ethereum is great, we need to learn this!'