Cyber terror a new challenge

By Tong Kim

A few significant events developed last week, which will affect North Korea immediately or eventually. In Washington, the U.S. FBI identified North Korea as the culprit that conducted a cyber-attack on Sony causing it to cancel the release of a comedy film, “The Interview,” which is the tale of a fictional plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Two days earlier, President Obama announced a decision to establish diplomatic relations with Cuba.

In Moscow, President Putin’s chief secretary extended an invitation to Kim Jong-un to visit Russia in May. Kim has not visited a foreign country since he came to power in 2011. In Seoul, some media reported that President Park Geun-hye is also invited to attend the 70th anniversary of the May 9 Victory Day in Moscow with other foreign leaders including Kim Jong-un.

Also in Seoul, the Constitutional Court dissolved the Unified Progressive Party, known as a pro-North Korea organization with a membership of 30,000 followers, in the midst of a public trend turning against North Korea. In New York, the U.N. General Assembly adopted a resolution calling for North Korea to be referred to the International Criminal Court for gross violations of human rights.

Of these developments, perhaps the most serious one is Pyongyang’s cyber-attack on the offices of Sony Pictures in the United States. In his news conference Dec. 19, Obama said Sony’s cancellation of the movie because of the cyber threats was “a mistake,” adding that he would not allow “some dictator some place… to start censorship here” in the U.S.

Apparently, there was no third country involved in the massive cyber-attack. North Korea has denied any connection with the attack, which resulted in the release of tens of thousands of documents, including sensitive personal information. The hackers further threatened to launch terrorist attacks on the theaters that would show the film. Earlier North Korea had denounced “The Interview” as “terrorism and an act of war” against it.

The hackers have successfully attacked Sony, which could lose production costs of $70 million. But, there are a number of problems against punishing them. The U.S. authorities said they would make a “proportionate response,” after having determined that the hackers were operating from North Korea, yet options for an effective response are severely limited. The option of retaliation in kind is ruled out because it would start a cyber war, and there are far more cyber targets in the U.S. than in the North.

It’s known that North Korea has been training hundreds of cyber hackers and investing in its IT industry for more than 10 years. With their improved skills, they allegedly attacked some South Korean banking networks and a news organization in the last two years, but without causing much damage. The purpose of the cyber disruptions is not clear, beyond what it represents as psychological intimidation and cyber terrorism.

Hacking and cyber terrorism are a new area of international security, for which no system of prevention, other than updating firewalls against ever advancing techniques of penetration, has been agreed upon in the arena of international relations. There is no treaty against cyber terrorism. The U.S. has complained about China’s hacking of American sites, but China never admitted that it was behind it. Hackers attack or attempt to attack corporate and government networks worldwide every day.

The U.N. Security Council has yet to deal with a case of cyber terrorism and to consider any sanctions against a state actor responsible for cyber terror. In theory, the U.S. could put North Korea back on its list of state sponsors of terrorism to impose more sanctions in addition to those currently in place against missile and nuclear tests, none of which has worked to change North Korea’s policy.

Currently, there is no engagement with the North or even a willingness to engage with it, as long as Pyongyang sticks to its nuclear program. Now, the potential threat of North Korea’s cyber terrorism is bringing up a new facet of the North Korean problem, which may perhaps demand the kind of diplomatic initiative that is seen in the dramatic shift in Washington’s policy on Cuba.

President Obama courageously admitted that the U.S. policy of isolating Cuba by trade embargo for over 50 years had little effect, while providing a rationale for the Cuban government for restrictions on its people, making their life more difficult. Although a full diplomatic relationship would require Congressional legislation, the administration is able to promote exchanges of visits and trade immediately. It has brought back American hostages safely from Cuba in exchange for the release of Cuban prisoners in America.

Thousands of Cubans fled to the U.S. from the dictatorship of Fidel Castro; 27,000 North Koreans have defected to the South. Under his new policy, Obama has opened ways to reunite separated Cuban families. Also, he pertinently pointed out that the U.S. has had 35 years of normal relations with Communist China and nearly two decades with Communist Vietnam, both of which fought against the U.S., claiming hundreds of thousands of lives.

Unlike in the case of Cuba, there is no issue of hostages between Washington and Pyongyang. However, there are more pressing issues of security and human rights at stake, which, if unattended, would only become worse. The new threat of cyber terror on top of nuclear and missile threats would only escalate the dangers of war on the Korean Peninsula.

North Korea may be a failed state, out of the international norm. To engage the North from a position of strength is not capitulation to the threats of its nuclear weapons or to its ability of cyber terror but a way forward to change its policy for peace and improvement of human rights. What’s your take?

The author is a visiting scholar at the Ilmin Institute of International Relations at Korea University, a visiting professor at the University of North Korean Studies and an ICAS fellow in the United States.