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“First, cybermilitary strength is cost effective. The 62-year-old defector listed five reasons for North Korea’s growing interest in cyber warfare: “Grooming prodigies … is considerably cheaper than buying new weapons or fighter jets” “They also don’t have any certainties that life away from the North will be any better than what they already have.” This kind of pride, being part of the elite, is nothing to sneeze about,” he said. “These kids have the confidence of the Party and have a certain standard of living guaranteed, not to mention a chance to live and travel abroad.
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These hackers have full access to the internet which gives them unfettered information about the world outside of North Korea, but Kim believes most to be not tempted to defect.
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“If they save up enough of the stipends they receive abroad, they can live very well when they return to the North,” Kim said. “The residences are communal, but by North Korean standards, are a great place to live,” said Kim Heung-kwang – adding that living in the capital is a great privilege on its own. The Kim Jong-il regime also guarantees housing in Pyongyang for married hackers, as well as food subsidies and a significant stipend during overseas deployments, he said. These “cyberwarriors” are provided with the best environment, and if they graduate with top grades, their parents in the provinces are given the opportunity to live in Pyongyang, Kim said, citing verified information from his former students who are still operating as hackers in the North. This move coupled a boost in “cybertroop” numbers from 500 to about 3,000, Kim said. Unit 121, which is located in Pyongyang’s Moonshin-dong area near the Taedong river, was raised in status late last year as a “department” under the Reconnaissance General Bureau, North Korea’s top intelligence agency, he said. After the overseas training, they are placed in various warfare units to serve as “cyberwarriors”, Kim said. ”įollowing an expedited two-year programme at university, students are sent to China or Russia for about one year to solidify their knowledge of hacking and and other technical skills. “When they graduate, they are sent to attend North Korea’s top technology institutes and universities, such as the Kim Il Sung University, Kim Chaek University of Technology, and various others in Pyongyang or Hamheung. “There is a pyramid-like prodigy recruiting system, where smart kids from all over the country – students who are good at math, coding and possess top analytical skills – are picked up to be grouped at Keumseong,” he said. The North Korean education system groups middle and high schools together into a six-year program.
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Kim said students who graduate at the top of their class in several selected primary schools all over the country and show excellence in science and mathematics are selected to be enrolled in the elite Keumseong 1 and 2 High-Middle Schools in Pyongyang. “There is a pyramid-like prodigy recruiting system, where smart kids … are picked up” Speaking via Skype, Kim told Al Jazeera that, as of last year, North Korea has procured more than 3,000 hackers serving in the North and abroad in China, Russia and elsewhere. It is difficult to tell that Kim is a defector, save for the momentary lapse in the way he speaks Korean: when it switches from the softer roll of the South Korean accent to the more rigid, structured North Korean manner of speech. He escaped North Korea in 2003 via China, and since 2004 has settled in Seoul as the head of a defectors’ group named North Korea Intellectuals Solidarity. Kim was also in charge of monitoring contraband South Korean television dramas and foreign books and managing other classified materials, until he was caught renting some of the seized loot to a friend. He pursued graduate studies at Hamhung Computer College where he studied operating systems, hardware technology and network theory – before going on to spend 19 years teaching students-turned-recruits for the North Korean regime’s cyberwarfare units at Hamheung Computer College and Hamheung Communist College. Kim graduated from the Kim Chaek University of Technology in Pyongyang, where he majored in data processing. Kim Heung-kwang was a computer science professor in North Korea. Kim Heung-kwang, a trainer of “cyberwarriors”, and hacker Jang Se-yul also warn of the regime’s concentrated efforts to bolster its cyberwarfare capabilities.
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A child becomes computer literate at primary school while North Korea’s most prodigious young students are identified and trained in advanced cyberwarfare techniques Īs South Korea blames North Korea for a recent slew of cyberattacks, two defectors share their experiences with Al Jazeera, shedding some light into the inner workings of the cyberwarfare programme in the communist country.