SEOUL--North Korea selects some of its brightest talent for
cyberwarfare training and has allocated significant resources to
the program as its conventional forces age and become increasingly
obsolete, defectors and experts say.
The U.S.'s conclusion that North Korea was responsible for the
massive hacking attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment has turned
the spotlight on cyber operations run by Pyongyang and its emphasis
on asymmetric warfare capabilities to maintain its ability to
threaten South Korea and others.
Late last year, South Korea's intelligence service quoted North
Korean leader Kim Jong Un as saying that cyberwarfare capabilities
are "a magic weapon" along with nuclear capabilities that enable
Pyongyang to threaten South Korea, according to lawmaker Cho
Won-Jin of the ruling Saenuri Party who was briefed by the
agency.
Kim Heung-kwang, a former computer science professor in North
Korea, says that working as a cyberwarrior is a highly-coveted
position among North Korean elite youth. Mr. Kim, who defected to
the South in 2004, says that he taught a range of programming
subjects such as data encryption and transmission. His finest
students were sent to China or Russia to hone their craft before
returning to serve in cyberwarfare, he said.
"[Working as a cyberwarrior] guarantees a certain level of
quality of life. You can freely use computers and travel overseas.
It's an advantageous position for future career promotion," said
Mr. Kim. While computers are becoming more prevalent in North
Korea, access to the Internet is limited to a tiny fraction of the
elite.
U.S. investigators suspect Unit 121 of North Korea's military
spy agency, the General Bureau of Reconnaissance, is behind the
attack on Sony. The division is also suspected by South Korea for
staging a series of disruptive attacks in recent years on Seoul
government websites, banks and broadcasters.
A person who answered the telephone at the North Korean
Consulate in Hong Kong declined to comment on the assertions.
North Korea Intellectuals Solidarity, a defector group headed by
Mr. Kim, said early last month that several cyberwarfare divisions,
including Unit 121 were ordered to secure critical data on weapons
development from nuclear-armed states, citing its sources inside
North Korea. Mr. Kim says there are also well-trained hacker teams
under North Korea's ruling Workers" Party.
Estimates of North Korea's cyberwarrior numbers range from
hundreds to thousands. Kim Kwan-jin, then-defense minister in
Seoul, said last year that North Korea runs a dedicated
cyberwarfare military unit composed of 3,000 people.
Jang Jin-sung, a former official in North Korea's propaganda
department, says hackers are often based in China, posing as
ordinary software engineers employed at Chinese companies. They
turn to hacking attacks when Pyongyang sends an order for action,
he says, citing information from his sources inside North
Korea.
Most attacks attributed to North Korea have been relatively
simple denial-of-service attacks that bombard websites with
information requests, causing them to crash. But North Korea has
also been blamed for implanting malware such as in a March 2013
attack on South Korea that caused thousands of computers crash at
some TV stations and banks. U.S. investigators have found
similarities with the latest attack on Sony.
The 2013 attacks showed North Korean hackers had evolved beyond
rudimentary attacks into "more targeted, complex and well-organized
operations involving several stages of exploitation of a target
system or network," said a report last week by Center for Strategic
and International Studies, a Washington-based bipartisan think
tank.
North Korea's rate of improvement in hacking techniques, while
behind the curve on a global scale, appears steep, the report
added. Assuming a similarly steep learning curve, the report
predicted North Korea would be capable of more destructive attacks
against supply chains or public infrastructure networks such as
power stations and airports.
Write to Jeyup S. Kwaak at jeyup.kwaak@wsj.com
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