By: Genevieve Bigue, Emma Quanbeck, and Arissa Low
Since his election in 2016, President Trump has valued creating diplomatic relations with Kim Jong Un, the Supreme Leader of North Korea. There have been speculations about whether to trust North Korea. Even before that, North Korea has been known to use cyberattacks and has been associated with many attacks on institutions from countries around the world. According to an article from the New York Times titled, “South Korea Accuses North of Hacking Senior Officials’ Phone,” North Korea has attacked financial institutions around the world including Sony Pictures in 2014 and the “South Korean subway system and smartphones.” In 2016 a hacker group from North Korea was deemed responsible for transferring “$101 million ...out of the Bangladesh central bank's account at the New York Federal Reserve.” There have also been related attacks in “attack banks in Ecuador, the Philippines, and Vietnam.” Additionally, “researchers at cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab said in April that a hacking group -- known as "Lazarus" -- also attacked financial institutions in Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Gabon, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Kenya, Malaysia, Nigeria, Poland, Taiwan, Thailand, and Uruguay.”
In 2014 Sony Pictures was hacked by North Korea. They were about to release “The Interview,” which is a “comedy about a plot to kill North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un…Hackers stole movie scripts, entire films, internal memos and personal information on movie stars and Sony employees…Clues pointed to Lazarus, and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation went on to conclude that North Korea was behind the breach.” The Washington Post also stated that the attack “knocked out computer systems at the company...”
Film Poster For the Interview
According to an article from the New York Times titled, “South Korea Accuses North of Hacking Senior Officials’ Phones,” in 2016 South Korea intelligence accused North Korea of hacking into government official’s smartphones. An article from CNN explains that “North Korea hacked its military intranet and leaked confidential information.”
On April 15, The US accused North Korea of “employing an array of old and new forms of cyberattacks to steal and launder money, extort companies and use digital currencies to gain cash for its nuclear weapons program.” (New York Times). The report was issued by the Department of Homeland Security, The Treasury Department, and The FBI. The claim of the report was that North Korea was using cyberattacks mainly to gain funding for its ballistic missile program and for destructive weapons. Although Trump claims to have a “great relationship” with North Korea’s leader Kim-Jong Un, the report published shows an increase in cyberthreat.
Along with the release of the report, the State Department announced an offer for up to 5 million dollars for “information about illicit D.P.R.K activities in cyberspace, including past or ongoing operations” (New York Times). Reports show that North Korea is involved in daily cyberconflict with South Korea and the United States.
After Pyongyang’s (North Korea’s capital) attempts to counterfeit $100 bills garnered a low success rate, The D.P.R.K has looked to cyberattacks to gain extra revenue and have been successful. The American report includes examples of cyber attacks by The DPRK including the widely publicized attack on Sony Pictures in 2014, The “FASTCash campaign”, which has taken over ATMs in Africa and Asia getting them to spew out money. The report also mentioned attempts to hack into digital currency exchanges. A new important detail in The DPRK’s hacking system was also exposed. North Korean hackers have been charging nation-state hackers, as well as other cybercriminals, for their services. Trump has yet to respond to the new concerns for American cyber safety.
The course theme that fits this event is how perception is more important than reality. Kim-Jong Un and Trump have had several meetings in the past including the Singapore Summit in 2018. This was the first meeting between the two where they “signed a joint statement agreeing to security guarantees for North Korea, new peaceful relations, the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, recovery of soldiers' remains, and follow-up negotiations between high-level officials” (Wikipedia). However, many seemed to think that being able to “work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula” is unrealistic. This is because we know that the 2005 statement to "abandon all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs” at “an early date” and pursue the goal of “verifiable denuclearization of the Korean peninsula” came after years of negotiations. Even after that, North Korea continued to test nuclear weapons. (The Atlantic)
Trump and Kim at the Singapore Summit
On April 19, Trump said that he had received a nice note from Kim-Jong Un and specifically mentioned that he thinks they are doing fine. This was said despite Kim-Jong Un stating he “would unveil a new strategic weapon ‘in the near future’” (New York Times). This information shows that Trump continues to perceive North Korea as an ally, despite the promises that they lacked to comply with. This enables North Korea to manipulate the U.S.
Discussion Questions:
How can the media cause tension?
Do you think The US should take North Korean cyber threats more seriously?
Do you think that we should give North Korea the benefit of the doubt and continue to trust them?
Sources:
How can the media cause tension?
ReplyDeleteThe media often spreads misinformation or exaggerate on issues, causing people to panic or stress about things that don't need to be stressed out about. With such a wide spread of overblown or simply incorrect information, it becomes harder and harder for people to discern what is true from what isn't true. This warps peoples' perception of what is really going on in the world and creates more stress and tension than is sometimes necessary.
Do you think that we should give North Korea the benefit of the doubt and continue to trust them?
No, they haven't shown willingness to denuclearize in the past and will likely continue not to in the future, at least diplomatically.