Category: North Korea

ICYMI: NK states they are developing new satellite, defends space program http://t.co/ZZ4GXIvxen

— KEI (@KoreaEconInst) June 5, 2015

North Korea blasted "rotten and corrupt capitalist societies" in commemoration of International Children's Day http://t.co/XOghsVv931

— Elizabeth Shim (@GlobalAsianista) June 1, 2015

Happy to see my book on Amazon! To avoid capture I had to keep changing my name, becoming "The Girl With Seven Names"http://t.co/rSNcwSCaHn

— Hyeonseo Lee (@HyeonseoLeeNK) May 30, 2015

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un inspects a tree nursery being constructed by the Korean People’s Army in this composite photo released by the North’s state-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper on May 29, 2015. The nursery, which covers an area of about 1.98 million square meters, consists of various facilities for nursery tree production. Kim was accompanied by his sister, Kim Yo-jong, who made her first public appearance in 47 days amid rumors of giving birth. (Yonhap)

It is well known that the North Koreans have decent hacking capabilities, but if they were to attempt to take out a nuclear plant I think the gloves would have to come off to deal with them:

A North Korean defector who worked as a university professor in the country has said in an interview with the BBC that North Korea now has over 6,000 hackers.

Professor Kim Heung-Kwang taught science at a university in North Korea for 20 years. But he defected in 2004 and fled the country.

Speaking to the BBC, Kim estimated that up to 20% of North Korea’s military spending goes toward Bureau 121, the army unit believed to focus on hacking.

Kim suggests the capabilities of North Korea’s hackers are significant. He said “their cyberattacks could have similar impacts as military attacks, killing people and destroying cities.”

Another claim made in the interview is that North Korea is working to develop its own malware based on Stuxnet. North Korea was named responsible for the Sony Pictures hack, in which it used modified computer software to hack into Sony Pictures and take over the company’s servers. But now Kim says the country wants to develop a new type of malware that can target nuclear plants. [Business Insider]

You can read more at the link.

This report is not really surprising because infecting North Korea’s nuclear program with a Stuxnet like virus would be far more challenging than Iran.  Reportedly the US and Israel were able to infect the Iranians’ nuclear program with the virus despite it being on a closed Intranet.  They did this by infecting a worker’s USB thumb drive with the virus who then plugged it into a computer within the intranet.  With Iran being a more open society it would be easier to place intelligence assets within the country to pull off such an attack.  In North Korea it would be much more difficult due to the closed nature of their society where most people are not even free to move about the country without an official permit much less get close enough to a nuclear facility to identify ways to infect their systems:

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The United States tried to deploy a version of the Stuxnet computer virus to attack North Korea’s nuclear weapons program five years ago but ultimately failed, according to people familiar with the covert campaign.

The operation began in tandem with the now-famous Stuxnet attack that sabotaged Iran’s nuclear program in 2009 and 2010 by destroying a thousand or more centrifuges that were enriching uranium. Reuters and others have reported that the Iran attack was a joint effort by U.S. and Israeli forces.

According to one U.S. intelligence source, Stuxnet’s developers produced a related virus that would be activated when it encountered Korean-language settings on an infected machine.

But U.S. agents could not access the core machines that ran Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program, said another source, a former high-ranking intelligence official who was briefed on the program.

The official said the National Security Agency-led campaign was stymied by North Korea’s utter secrecy, as well as the extreme isolation of its communications systems. A third source, also previously with U.S. intelligence, said he had heard about the failed cyber attack but did not know details.

North Korea has some of the most isolated communications networks in the world. Just owning a computer requires police permission, and the open Internet is unknown except to a tiny elite. The country has one main conduit for Internet connections to the outside world, through China.  [Reuters via a reader tip]

You can read more at the link, but I am sure the North Koreans are smart enough to not be using USB thumb drives thus meaning their systems are likely only vulnerable to an insider attack.

It looks like the North Koreans will probably start another provocation cycle whenever this rocket launch site upgrade is complete:

Satellite imagery shows significant new construction at North Korea’s main rocket launch site in a sign of leader Kim Jong Un’s determination to pursue a space program despite international censure, a U.S. research institute said Thursday.

North Korea is barred under U.N. Security Council resolutions from launching rockets as that technology can also be used to launch ballistic missiles. Kim, however, declared this month that its space program “can never be abandoned.”

North Korea has been upgrading the Sohae launch site on its west coast since mid-2013 after it blasted its first rocket into space in December 2012. It says the space program is peaceful.

The U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies says the North completed an expansion of its launch tower late last year to take larger rockets. Commercial satellite imagery shows that since then, the North has been working on a support building and what appears to be a moveable platform to allow an assembled rocket to be shifted on rails to the launch pad. The institute likens it to facilities in China but says there’s no publicly available evidence to suggest Beijing is providing help.

The most recent image is from May 16.

“The Sohae facility upgrade program represents a significant investment of financial, material and personnel resources and is another indicator, along with its public statements, that North Korea is determined to pursue its space program,” read the analysis provided to The Associated Press ahead of publication on the institute’s website, 38 North.

Satellite imagery analyst Tim Brown writes that the expansion of the launch tower suggests the North wants to field a larger space launch vehicle, which may also contribute to its development of long-range ballistic missiles.  [Associated Press]

You can read more at the link, but considering all the construction going on the North Koreans are clearly having a lot of money coming in despite financial sanctions.

"Sponsors…focus more on the ‘defector’ part rather than the value of being a ‘WBA World Champion’." @NewFocusINTL http://t.co/iLG0HMbBOs

— Liberty in North Korea (@LibertyinNK) May 28, 2015

It is amazing how many people enjoy supporting the Kim regime with their money. I wonder how many of these same people would support apartheid South Africa with their money like they are the Kim regime:

Josh Thomas, a 28-year old American graphic designer, visited Pyongyang in 2013 on a beer tour. Thomas visited the Taedonggang Beer Brewery and Paradise Department Store and enjoyed the beer served at the Yanggakdo International Hotel. He said it is actually better than the beer made in South Korea.

“Going on a beer tour to North Korea, it was a longtime dream come true,” said Thomas.
The tour was organized by Young Pioneer Tours, a company founded by a group of expatriates in China that organizes tours to North Korea.

North Korea is usually in the headlines for its nuclear weapons program, missile launches, attacks on South Korea and miserable human rights record. Much less attention is paid to the growing number of foreign companies like Young Pioneer Tours with business in North Korea.

According to the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence, 351 foreign companies launched joint ventures with North Korean companies from 2004 through 2011. Of these, 75 percent were Chinese. From the 88 companies whose investment sizes could be determined, the total invested amount was estimated at $2.32 billion.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more about the companies doing business in North Korea at the link.

Just the fact that they paid money to the Kim regime to travel to North Korea shows they care little about human rights and more about promoting themselves:

A group of foreign women activists crossed the heavily fortified inter-Korean border from North Korea on Sunday, voicing hope that their move could help bring lasting peace to a divided peninsula.

   About 30 female activists from around the world, including U.S. activist Gloria Steinem and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Maguire, marched down from the North to the South across the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) to mark the International Women’s Day for Disarmament.

   The DMZ, which bisects the Korean Peninsula, is a 259-kilometer-long and 4-kilometer-wide strip of rugged no-man’s land stretching from coast to coast, serving as a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War that ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.

   “We are feeling very positive (about) what we’ve accomplished … which is a trip for peace, for reconciliation and for human rights and a trip to which both governments agreed,” Steinem told a press conference in South Korea. “We were able to be citizens’ diplomats.”. [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link such as how the North Korean media reported how this group paid homage to Kim Il-sung which they deny. Their denials are irrelevant because by agreeing to travel to North Korea in the first place they made themselves willing propaganda pieces for the Kim regime.