N Korea faces new cyber claims and anger over latest missile test
NORTH KOREA’S main spy agency has a special cell called Unit 180 that is likely to have launched some of its most audacious global cyber attacks, defectors and internet security experts have revealed.
The new information comes amid growing suspicion that North Korea may have been behind the Wannacry “ransomware” cyber attack that infected more than 300,000 computers in 150 countries last week and created chaos in British NHS trusts.
Pyongyang has dismissed the allegation as “ridiculous”, but it has been blamed in recent years for a series of online attacks, mostly on financial networks in the US and South Korea.
Those accusations have centred on the hermit state’s alleged connection with a hacking group called Lazarus that is linked to last year’s £62million cyber heist at the Bangladesh central bank and the 2014 attack on Sony’s Hollywood studio.
Pyongyang’s cyber attacks were aimed at raising cash and were likely organised by Unit 180, a part of the Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB), its main overseas intelligence agency, said Kim Heung-kwang, a computer scientist who defected in 2004.
“Unit 180 is engaged in hacking financial institutions [by] breaching and withdrawing money out of bank accounts,” Mr Kim told Reuters. It is feared that revenue gained from cyber attacks is helping to fund North Korea’s nuclear and missile programme.
Pyongyang last night confirmed the test of another mid-range ballistic missile. State controlled media said it was a Pukguksong-2, a land-based version of Pyongyang’s submarine-launched weapon. Leader Kim Jong-un oversaw the launch, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported, adding that he “approved the deployment of this weapon system.”
The projectile was fired from an area near Pukchang, north-east of the capital, and flew east for about 310 miles towards the Sea of Japan. The test was confirmed by US Pacific Command in Hawaii, and the US reconfirmed its “ironclad commitment” to allies South Korea and Japan. The United nations Security Council yesterday said it is to hold an emergency meeting tomorrow in response to the latest missile test.
Japan registered its protest against the provocation and the new South Korean president, Moon Jae-in, convened a National Security Council meeting in response.
Mr Moon’s new national security chief, Chung Eui-yong, had said South Korea should “take the lead” in restoring frosty inter-korea relations.