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South Korea Wants to Counter the North's Nukes with Cyberweapons

Familiar as that plot may sound, don't call it Stuxnet just yet, even if South Korea may have US help.
The Freedom Bridge overlooking the DMZ. Image: Shutterstock

South Korea plans to develop cyberweapons capable of disrupting North Korea's nuclear facilities, according to remarks by the South's defense ministry. But familiar as that plot may sound, don't call it Stuxnet just yet, even if South Korea may have US help.

The news comes from Yonhap News Agency, which reported that the defense ministry presented a long-term cyberpolicy plan to South Korean parliament earlier this week. According to Yonhap, part of the plan included the development of an offensive cyberweapon "to cripple North Korea's missile and atomic facilities," which the news agency compared to Stuxnet.

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The plan is part of the South Korean military's push for cyberwar capabilities, which was spurred in 2010 with the launch of a cyber command center to counter potential threats from North Korea's alleged hacker army. Most recently, the Cyber Warfare Command has been embroiled in a political scandal in which it was accused of meddling in elections, which much of this week's parliamentary meeting was dedicated to addressing.

But buried in the testimony was the admission that the Cyber Warfare Command, which has heretofore been largely tasked with psychological war, will be joined in May by a "Cyber Defense Department" run by South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff and aimed at developing offensive attacks.

"Once the second phase plan is established, the cyber command will carry out comprehensive cyberwarfare missions," an anonymous official told Yonhap reporter Kim Eun-jung.

The naming of each unit is a bit confusing due, I believe, to translations. For example, the South Korean military calls the group started in 2010 the Cyber Defense Command. Regardless, the main point is that South Korea hopes to counter the North Korean nuclear threat with cyberattacks aimed at either disrupting fuel production, like the US-Israeli produced Stuxnet, or to attack guidance and launch systems.

Writing in the Diplomat, Zachary Keck argues for the latter, saying a Stuxnet-style virus aimed at disrupting industrial processes would miss the mark when North Korea already has nuclear weapons. Instead, he argues, delaying or disrupting North Korea's launch capabilities could help the South counter with its own conventional weapons.

That said, South Korea's commitment to developing full-on cyberweapons isn't unique, as everyone from China to the US has been banging the cyberwar drum for years now. What is unique is how direct the comments are, which suggests that a country building offensive cyberweapons is standard procedure now.

And as you may have suspected, South Korea isn't it in alone in its cyber endeavors. A couple weeks ago, the US and South Korea held their first National Defense Cyber Cooperation Working Group, which was aimed at sharing "information about cyber threats and enhancing the all-around cooperation of cyber policy, strategy, doctrine, personnel and training." While that's not evidence that the US is directly helping South Korea build cyberweapons, it's a reminder that when it comes to cyberwar, allies are going to work together just as they do in the real world.