North Korea’s asymmetric warfare potential is being bolstered by one of the world’s best and most organised cyber attack capabilities, according to the Army general nominated to command United States forces in South Korea.
“This is an area of growth,” Army General Vincent Brooks told the Senate Armed Services Committee during his nomination hearing on Tuesday. “While I would not characterise them as the best in the world, they are among the best in the world and the best organised. What they are experimenting with” and “what they are willing to do” has shown boldness and capability, he added.
Although Brooks, the former head of Army Pacific forces, touched on North Korea’s cyber attack skills, he declined during the public hearing to discuss US offensive cyber capabilities against Kim Jong-un ‘s reclusive regime.
While I would not characterise them as the best in the world, they are among the best in the world and the best organised
FBI Director James Comey said in early 2015 that his agency had “high confidence” that North Korea orchestrated a 2014 attack against Sony that led to the leak of information on the company’s employees, internal e-mails and future movies. North Korea’s Reconnaissance General Bureau was behind that hack, James Clapper, US director of national intelligence, also said in 2015. North Korea rejected the accusations.
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North Korea’s conventional forces remain forward deployed near the demilitarised zone separating it from South Korea, and the US has seen a decline in the levels and complexity of training for those troops, Brooks said.
