Korea expert: Cyberconflict likely to escalate
North Korea is likely to escalate its cyberattacks on South Korea in the coming years in an effort to convince its southern neighbor to back off demands to limit its nuclear program, a Korea expert predicted.
After a series of cyberattacks beginning in 2008, North Korea will continue to use cyberconflict to pressure South Korea and allies the U.S. and Japan to abandon their calls for the north to commit to end its nuclear program in a "one-shot" negotiation instead of a phased-in series of deals that the countries had formerly worked on, said Steven Kim, a professor at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies.
North Korea sees cyberconflict as a way to stir up political dissent in South Korea, to spread propaganda there and to disrupt the government, media and financial institutions in the southern half of the peninsula, Kim said during a speech at the Korea Economic Institute of America in Washington, D.C.
