Putin blames the United States, Edward Snowden blames Russia and the US blames Pyongyang, via the shady Lazarus Group. Here’s the lowdown
North Korea last Sunday fired a missile that went five times higher than the International Space Station – 2,111 kilometers up, to be exact – before returning to earth and landing in the Sea of Japan. That launch has American experts worried for a very particular reason – it proved Pyongyang has the re-entry technology that could one day help it to target the continental United States.
But as the world watches North Korea inch closer to reaching the mainland US with a nuclear warhead, the regime is also developing other means of attack.
On February 13, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ’s half-brother, Kim Jong-nam, was killed in Kuala Lumpur International Airport with VX, the world’s deadliest nerve agent.
While it hasn’ t been proved conclusively that North Korea was behind the killing, much of the world believes that to be the case.
And if it was, some experts believe that the killing was meant to serve a message that North Korea can and will hit airports in this way.
Aside from its chemical capabilities, North Korea has also been developing sophisticated means of cyberwarfare.
Since May 12, more than 300,000 computers in over 150 countries have become infected by WannaCry ransomware, a worm that targets Microsoft Windows systems, encrypts victims’ data and demands bitcoin payments of US$300 within three days or US$600 within six days to release the data. WannaCry uses hacking tools developed by the United States National Security Agency, namely EternalBlue and DoublePulsar, to access victims’ computers. Since individual users are less likely to pay than companies or institutions, whose data are more valuable, WannaCry has been used to target entities such as the Chinese public security bureau, FedEx, the Indian governments of Kerala, West Bengal and Gujarat, Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and England’s National Health Service.
