S. Korea, U.S., Japan highlight N. Korea’s cyberthreats in co-hosted informal UNSC meeting

South Korea, the United States and Japan co-hosted an informal U.N. Security Council (UNSC) meeting Thursday to highlight North Korea's evolving cyberthreats, in a show of their unity following Russia's veto to terminate a U.N. expert panel monitoring compliance with anti-Pyongyang sanctions. The three UNSC members led the session a week after Russia vetoed a resolution on the annual renewal of the mandate of the Panel of Experts. Absent the resolution, its mandate is set to end April 30. The UNSC event, called the Arria formula meeting, marked the council's first discussions focusing on the North's illicit cyber activities. It came amid concerns that Pyongyang has been using cyberattacks and other online methods to evade sanctions, steal technologies and virtual assets, and generate revenue to bankroll its weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programs. South Korean Ambassador to the U.N. Hwang Joon-kook called North Korea a "textbook" example of illicit cyber activities and cybercrimes that he said can pose additional challenges to the global non-proliferation architecture. "A textbook example in this regard is the DPRK's malicious cyber activities," he said, referring to the North by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. "About 40 percent of the DPRK's WMD programs are funded by its illicit cyber activities, according to the panel's report. Over 50 member states have now been directly affected by DPRK-backed hacker groups that have breached networks of foreign banks and crypto agencies," he added. Hwang also cited the panel's finding that the North's cyber activities generate about 50 percent of its foreign currency income, effectively evading the UNSC sanctions. "The DPRK's elite hackers have been illicitly acquiring intellectual property from major defense companies, including from those of their closest allies, to develop WMD programs and their delivery systems," he added. His citation of the panel's report appears to accentuate the important role of the panel in laying bare the North's ill-intended activities in cyberspace and other domains. Hwang called for international cooperation to address transnational cybersecurity challenges, including at the UNSC. "The Security Council should fulfill its responsibility by actively engaging in the agenda of cybersecurity, laying the ground for more effective responses," he said. U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield expressed the U.S.' concerns about the North's "malicious" cyberattacks as she also cited the panel's report on 17 cryptocurrency heists last year, for which the North might be responsible, with losses valued at more than $750 million. "Let's be clear that it's not just that this money was stolen," she said. "Revenue from the DPRK cyber operations ... directly funds its unlawful WMD and ballistic missile programs to say nothing of the DPRK cyber operations aimed at intimidating North Korean escapees." Thomas-Greenfield also underscored ongoing collaboration with partner countries to address cyberthreats. "The U.S. is working with like-minded countries to highlight and condemn disruptive, destructive and destabilizing behavior in cyberspace, including that of the DPRK," she said. "But more than that, we are working to stop this behavior in its tracks." Japanese Ambassador to the U.N. Kazuyuki Yamazaki also called attention to the expert panel's report on North Korea's cyber activities while saying it is "highly regrettable" that Russia vetoed the resolution on the panel's mandate. "With greater access to advanced cyber technology, states could misuse such tools to illicitly finance their weapons programs or they could simply steal the blueprints for weapons," he said. "One notorious example is North Korea's WMD and missile program." Source: Yonhap News Agency