An Assessment of North Korean Cyber Threats and the Republic of Korea’s Policy Responses: An Update
2019.03.06
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Authors:
Research Fellow, Center for Security and Strategy, Korea Institute for Defense Analyses (KIDA)
Hyeong-Wook Boo
Research Assistant, Center for Security and Strategy, KIDA
Kyung-Roak Kang
Abstract
Recent cyber threats from North Korea and its transformations since 2009 are introduced and analyzed in this present study. There is a clear difference in North Korea’s recent behavior in cyberspace, compared to prior years. Currently refraining from continuing any saber-rattling cyber attacks against South Korea and the world, North Korea’s recent cyber operation cases are regarded as primarily motivated by financial objectives. This crucial development is relevant to the rapidly transforming geopolitical situation of the Korean Peninsula, and represents a strategic overturn of Kim Jung Un’s national strategy. This, in turn, will cause cyberwar logic in the Peninsula to eventually lose its existential rationales in the future. Thus, it is necessary to develop a multidimensional approach towards existing North Korean cyber threats, in both domestic and international policy. Such efforts should include renewing domestic cyber-response systems, securing international cooperation to restrict the mobility of North Korean hackers, and even lifting international sanctions to some extent, in order to provide incentives to discourage North Korea’s cyber activities in the pursuit of financial resources.
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Image Source: CNA