The United States and South Korea held a working group meeting on North Korea's cyber threat this week, the state department said Wednesday, amid their joint efforts to cut off illicit funds from being funneled into the North's illegal weapons development programs.

The working group meeting was held in South Korea on Wednesday, led by US Deputy Special Representative for North Korea Jung Pak and her South Korean counterpart, Lee Jun-il, according to the state department.

"The Republic of Korea hosted the 4th US-ROK Working Group on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea Cyber Threat on July 26," the department said in a press release, referring to South and North Korea by their official names.

"The meeting underscores the close collaboration between the US and ROK governments to disrupt the DPRK's ability to generate revenue for its unlawful WMD and ballistic missile programs," it added.

The allies have stressed the need to expose and prevent North Korea's cyber theft, with South Korea's spy agency, the National Intelligence Service, noting earlier this month that Pyongyang stole at least $700 worth virtual assets in 2022 alone.

"The United States and ROK are pursuing a wide range of actions to address the DPRK's malicious cyber activity, including its theft of virtual currencies, and DPRK information technology workers working abroad by fraudulently posing as non-DPRK nationals," the state department said.

"The US-ROK working group discussed how to more effectively partner with foreign governments and industry leaders to raise awareness of the threat posed by DPRK cyber actors and to increase information sharing between governments and the private sector on cyber security issues," it added. (Yonhap)