As we enter this year, the U.S. is unprecedentedly intensifying its “cyber threat” racket against the DPRK.

From the beginning of this year, every federal government agency, inclusive of the White House, the State Department, the Defense Department, the Justice Department, the Department of Homeland Security and the Treasury Department, has come out picking on the “cyber threat” from the DPRK and even setting a price on it. In tandem with this, civil cyber security enterprises are also actively joining in the anti-DPRK racket while circulating fabrications about the “cyber threat” from the DPRK.

Recently, the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Treasury Department made public what is called a “joint alert” warning against the “cyber threat” from the DPRK. After that, an official from the spokesperson’s office of the State Department made a nonsensical remark that the DPRK is financing illegal weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs through its cyber activities.

As already known, the word “cybercrime” first came into existence in the U.S.

The U.S. has taken advantage of its hegemonic position in the IT industry to systematically commit espionage acts against other countries since a long time ago.

It is the U.S. which astonished the whole world by tapping the phone calls of leaders of its allies, to say nothing of its enemies. It is again the U.S. which conducted more than 61,000 hacking operations under the internet surveillance program such as “PRISM”.

Recently, it was revealed that a hacker group under the U.S. Cyber Command has committed hacking attacks termed “TV Screen Action” for the past 10-odd years against 45 countries and regions, i.e. China, Russia, Japan, south Korea, India, U.K., Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Thailand, Egypt, Brazil and so on, much to the consternation of the international society.

In February, it was exposed that an American hacker publicly admitted to committing a hacking attack against our country to draw the attention of the media.

An anonymous hacker named “P4x” said that he hacked into north Korea’s internet homepages for external propaganda on January 26. He continued to blow his own trumpet that he is planning to steal and share information with direct penetration into the internet homepages in the future, too, even though his act might have violated the U.S. law on prohibition of computer fraud and abuse.

As he had admitted, hacking attack goes against the U.S. law, not to mention the international law.

Nevertheless, the U.S. does not say a single word about the illegal hacking by its citizen. Instead, it is hell-bent on picking on the nonexistent “cyber issue” of other countries.

This is tantamount to the guilty party filing the suit first.

Crystal clear is the intention of the U.S which incites “cyber threat” from the DPRK at every possible opportunity.

It is to tarnish the image of the DPRK and stir up an international atmosphere of sanctions and pressure against it.

This is clearly proved by the fact that the U.S. urges not only the government agencies but also civil organizations and individuals to kick up a row about “cyber threat” from the DPRK.

We flatly reject the baseless “cyber threat” set afloat by the U.S. and brand it as a grave infringement on sovereignty of our state.

The U.S. should be well aware of the fact that the more desperately it clings to the “cyber racket” against the DPRK, the more it will exert a bad influence on the DPRK-U.S. relations already fraught with tension, and the greater failure and frustration it will suffer.

Pak Song Il

Researcher of the Institute for American Studies

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, DPRK