11 March 2017

Tech Roundup: America’s Cyberwar Against North Korea


By JIM KERSTETTER

The KN-14, one of two types of intercontinental ballistic missiles that North Korea is developing, at a military parade in the capital, Pyongyang, in October 2015, in an image released by the nation's government.CreditKorean Central News Agency, via Reuters

It is no secret that North Korea’s military ambitions include building an intercontinental missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead to the United States. What isn’t as well known is what the United States has been doing to thwart that ambition.

In a startling story, The New York Times’s David E. Sanger and William J. Broad detail a three-year cyberwar quietly waged against North Korea’s missile program. Some experts believe the United States has managed to delay by several years the day when North Korea will be able to threaten American cities. Others have grown increasingly skeptical of the approach.

On Monday morning, the South Korean military reported that North Korea had fired four ballistic missiles from its long-range rocket launch site. The missiles, an indication of the North’s growing capacity, appeared to have fallen into the sea near Japan.The big news over the weekend was President Trump’s early-morning tweets asserting — without providing any evidence — that President Barack Obama ordered the tapping of Mr. Trump’s phones during the presidential election. A spokesman for Mr. Obama said the accusation was completely false. And in another remarkable moment in the country’s political meltdown, James B. Comey, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, asked the Justice Department to publicly reject Mr. Trump’s assertion.

The rest of the world, it seems, is not waiting for Washington’s drama to play itself out.

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