This article assesses North Korea's cyber capabilities and the question of what Pyongyang intends to do with them. The author, Rhea Siers, argues that the country's cyber weapons warrant at least as much concern as its nuclear programme, noting that significant attacks on South Korean security research institutions preceded the better-known action against Sony, and that Hewlett Packard had already published a detailed analysis of the North Korean cyber apparatus.
Siers draws on the Department of Defense's annual report to Congress, which treats offensive cyber operations as a cost-effective route to asymmetric, deniable military options for a state with a bleak economic outlook, and warns that North Korean reliance on third-party internet infrastructure raises the risk of escalation beyond the Korean peninsula. She distinguishes the DPRK's motivations from those of the PRC, its cyber enabler and sponsor, which uses cyber capability for espionage and commercial advantage rather than to damage the United States economy directly.