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

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.