Bonus: The Lazarus Heist special

World of Secrets

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary

4.7 • 765 Ratings

🗓️ 2 September 2025

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The biggest heist yet - $1.5 billion disappears in minutes. But what follows reveals North Korea’s expanding reach — from elite hackers to soldiers on the battlefield. Listen to this special episode from The Lazarus Heist right here.

The audacious attack was on the ByBit crypto exchange in February 2025. Investigators say North Korean hackers, the Lazarus Group, are responsible – the biggest heist in the history of crypto. With hosts Jean Lee and Geoff White, we uncover how they pulled it off.

But as Pyongyang’s cyber army is striking targets all over the world, North Korean soldiers have also been fighting on more traditional battlegrounds – siding with Russia in its war on Ukraine. We meet the South Korean correspondent who secured a world-exclusive interview with a North Korean POW.

Does this all signify a turning point for North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, as his cyber operatives pull off increasingly daring heists and his military gain real-world combat experience fighting with the Russians against Ukraine? As Kim continues to ally with Vladimir Putin — a leader whose country possesses exactly the kind of nuclear expertise North Korea has long sought – is he more dangerous than ever?

Meanwhile North Korea says it has nothing to do with the cybercrimes the Lazarus Group is accused of, saying the United States is making these allegations to try and tarnish its image.

To hear more about the hackers, search for The Lazarus Heist, wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Rory Stewart and I grew up wanting to be a hero and I'm still fascinated by the ideas of heroism.
0:09.0	In my new series, I'm taking in the long sweep of history from Achilles to Zelensky and asking, what is a hero?
0:16.0	Simply doing your job, being a decent human being.
0:20.0	A true hero is someone who just kind of shines by
0:23.1	their own light and that light is to be recognised by others. The long history of heroism with me,
0:28.6	Rory Stewart. Listen on BBC Sounds. Hi, I'm Jeff White, one of the hosts of the Lazarus Heist.
0:35.9	There's a new season of World of Secrets coming soon,
0:38.7	but before that, we thought you'd like to hear this special episode. It's about how hackers
0:44.5	pull off the biggest heist in the history of crypto. 1.5 billion dollars disappears in minutes,
0:52.9	and investigators say the North Korean Lazarus Group
0:56.3	are behind it. You can listen to the whole episode right here. And if you want to hear more,
1:02.1	search for The Lazarus Heist, wherever you get your BBC podcasts.
1:16.6	Friday night in Singapore, February 2025.
1:24.4	The time, it's around 10.30, and the CEO of a big digital finance company is working late.
1:28.8	He's got one last job ahead of the weekend, moving money from one account to another. Pretty routine stuff. Routine, but still needs concentration. The money
1:36.2	in question is in crypto currency and stored in a kind of digital vault. For safety, it's
1:42.7	usually kept offline, disconnected from the internet.
1:46.2	To use it, the CEO needs to bring it online, unlock it, and move money into a more accessible
1:52.7	vault, one that's open for business on the internet. Think of it like moving money from
1:57.2	bank's underground vault up to the tellerers desk. In this case, the CEO wants
2:02.5	to move 30,000 Ethereum, one of the major cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin. 30,000 Ethereum is a lot.
2:10.6	The cash equivalent is more than 100 million US dollars. Multiple people need to sign off on the
	...

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