A lawyer representing victims of North Korean terrorism has intervened in the Arbitrum DAO forums, informing delegates that they cannot release 30,765 ETH frozen after the recent rsETH exploit into a recovery effort. The frozen ether was stolen from restaked ETH holders during the April 19 Kelp DAO bridge exploit, reportedly the largest DeFi hack of 2026. The lawyer, Charles Gerstein, filed a restraining notice under New York law on behalf of three sets of judgment creditors with approximately $877 million in claims against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
The claims date back decades, including the 1972 Lod Airport massacre, the abduction and killing of Reverend Kim Dong Shik in 2000, and the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war. Although the plaintiffs won their cases, North Korea has never paid.
Gerstein's filing argues that the 30,765 ETH frozen by Arbitrum's Security Council qualifies as North Korean property under U.S. enforcement law, given the alleged links between the Lazarus Group, responsible for the exploit, and the North Korean state. This could give the families with unpaid judgments a senior legal claim on the funds, ahead of the original rsETH depositors.
The legal mechanism used is a New York enforcement tool that allows creditors to freeze assets by serving a restraining notice, without first obtaining a new court order. However, the filing has drawn pushback, with some arguing that the ETH is stolen property and does not belong to North Korea, and that blocking the recovery effort would unfairly shift the cost of North Korea's debt onto a different set of victims.