Jabar Ekspres – The United States and South Korea are holding a working group meeting to discuss North Korea’s cyber threats this week, the State Department said on Wednesday.
The planned meeting comes amid their joint efforts to cut off illicit funds from being channeled to North Korea’s illegal weapons development programs.
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According to the State Department, the working group meeting was held in South Korea on Wednesday (local time) and was chaired by US Deputy Special Envoy for North Korea Jung Pak and his South Korean counterpart Lee Jun-il.
“The Republic of Korea (ROK) hosted the fourth US-ROK Working Group on Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) Cyber Threats on July 26,” the State Department said in a press release.
The State Department referred to the official names of South Korea — ROK and North Korea — DPRK.
“The meeting underscored the close collaboration between the US and South Korean governments to stem North Korea’s ability to generate revenue for its unlawful weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and ballistic missile programs,” the US department said.
The two allies emphasized the need to uncover and prevent cyber theft by North Korea through South Korea’s National Intelligence Agency, which noted this month that Pyongyang stole virtual assets worth at least US$700 by 2022.
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“The U.S. and South Korea are pursuing a range of measures to address North Korea’s malicious cyber activities, including theft of virtual currency, and North Korean information technology workers working overseas posing as non-Korean citizens,” the State Department said.
“The US-South Korea working group discussed how to partner more effectively with foreign governments and industry leaders to raise awareness of the threat posed by North Korean cyber actors and increase cybersecurity information sharing between the government and private sector,” they added.
