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 Non-conventional capabilities like cyber-warfare and nuclear
technology are the weapons of choice for the impoverished North to
match its main enemies, they said.
Obsessed by fears that it will be over-run by South Korea and the
United States, North Korea has been working for years on the ability
to disrupt or destroy computer systems that control vital public
services such as telecoms and energy utilities, according to one
defector.
"North Korea's ultimate goal in cyber strategy is to be able to
attack national infrastructure of South Korea and the United
States," said Kim Heung-kwang, a defector from the North who was a
computer science professor and says he maintains links with the
community in his home country.
"The hacking of Sony Pictures is similar to previous attacks that
were blamed on North Korea and is a result of training and efforts
made with the goal of destroying infrastructure," said Kim, who came
to the South in 2004.
The North's most successful cyber-attack to date may be the hacking
at Sony Corp that led to the studio cancelling a comedy on the
fictional assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Although not officially accused by Washington, U.S. government
sources said on Wednesday that investigators had determined the
attack was "state sponsored" and that North Korea was the government
involved.
"They have trained themselves by launching attacks related to
electronic networks," said Jang Se-yul, a defector from North Korea
who studied at the military college for computer sciences before
escaping to the South six years ago, referring to the North’s cyber
warfare unit.
For years, North Korea has been pouring resources into a
sophisticated cyber-warfare cell called Bureau 121, run by the
military's spy agency and staffed by some of the most talented
computer experts in the country, he and other defectors have said.
Most of the hackers in the unit are drawn from the military computer
school.
"The ultimate target that they have been aiming at for long is
infrastructure," Jang said.
ATTACKS ON THE SOUTH
In 2013, South Korea blamed the North for crippling cyber-attacks
that froze the computer systems of its banks and broadcasters for
days.
More than 30,000 computers at South Korean banks and broadcast
companies were hit in March that year, followed by an attack on the
South Korean government's web sites.
An official at Seoul's defense ministry, which set up a Cyber
Command four years ago, said the North's potential to disrupt the
South's infrastructure with cyber-attacks is an emerging threat but
declined to give details.
South Korea's intelligence agency declined to comment on networks
that remain vulnerable to North Korean hacking. Its national police,
which runs an anti-cyber crimes operation, also did not have
comment.
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But officials at the country's gas utility and the operator of 23
nuclear reactors that supply a third of the electricity for Asia's
fourth largest economy said contingency plans are in place to
counter infiltration.
“We have been more vigilant since last year’s hacking on banks," an
official at the state-run Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co Ltd said.
"We have separated networks for internal use from the outside."
An official for Korea Gas Corp, the world's largest corporate buyer
of liquefied natural gas, said it has been working with the National
Intelligence Service against potential cyber threats.
But highlighting the vulnerability to hacking, the network of Korea
Hydro & Nuclear Power was recently compromised, resulting in the
leak of personal information of employees, the blueprints of some
nuclear plant equipment, electricity flow charts and estimates of
radiation exposure on local residents.
Preliminary investigations have found no evidence that the nuclear
reactor control system was hacked but an added layer of alert
against cyber infiltration has been ordered for major energy
installations, the Industry and Energy Ministry said on Friday.
Although North Korea diverts much of its scarce resources to the
military, its outdated Soviet-era tanks, planes and small arms are
at a stark disadvantage to next-generation capabilities of its
adversaries.
It has, however, invested significant time and money in its
asymmetric warfare capabilities, which include a vast fleet of
mini-submarines and thousands of state-sponsored hackers.
"When you look at military capabilities, there are various aspects
like nuclear and conventional. But with the economic environment and
difficulties (the North) faces, there is bound to be limitation in
raising nuclear capabilities or submarines or conventional power,"
said Lim Jong-in, dean of the Korea University Graduate School of
Information Security in Seoul.
"But cyber capability is all about people...I believe it is the most
effective path to strengthening the North's military power."
(Additional reporting by Meeyoung Cho, Kahyun Yang and Hyunyoung Yi;
Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
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