Islam Times - South Korea says North has 6,000-member cyber army

Islam Times - Seoul claims that North Korea has a 6,000-member cyber army dedicated to disrupting South Korea’s military and main government systems.

North Korea’s 6,000 cyber soldiers are dedicated to “paralyzing the South psychologically and materially,” the South Korean Defense Ministry said in a report on Tuesday.

However, Seoul failed to suggest how it made its assessments.

The figure is a doubling of an earlier estimate made by former South Korean Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin in 2013, that North Korea was operating a cyberwarfare staff of 3,000.

South Korea has accused Pyongyang of carrying out at least six high-profile cyberattacks since 2007, with many more unsuccessful attempts to gain access to computer systems of businesses and government agencies.

The two countries remain technically at war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace deal.

Meanwhile, the US publicly blamed North Korea for a recent cyber-attack on Sony Pictures over a movie depicting the fictional assassination of the North’s leader, Kim Jong-un.

On January 2, US President Barack Obama imposed new sanctions on top North Korean officials and defense-related organizations over the accusation.

Pyongyang not only denied the claim, but also proposed a joint investigation with Washington into the cyber attack against the Sony Pictures’ computer systems.