North Korea’s CyberArmy Doubles to 6,000 Members from 2013

North Korea has been receiving a lot of negative publicity in the recent Sony hacking incident. Although the evidence for N. Korean involvement is rather “flimsy,” FBI stands by its accusation. There may now, however, be a good reason to be worried about N. Korea: according to its southern counterpart, the north currently has about 6,000 members-strong cyberarmy.

According to a recent report by the Associated Press, the 6,000 member army is focused on “cyber warfare and performing cyberattacks [to achieve] physical and psychological paralysis in South Korea, such as causing problems for military operations and national infrastructure.” This current estimate is double the previous estimates made by the former Defense Minister of South Korea, Kim Kwan-jin, who assessed there to be about 3,000 N. Korean cybersoldiers.

In addition to this new estimate, S. Korean Defense Ministry also warned that they believe that North Korea might have gained the ability to “to strike the U.S. mainland because of its progress in missile technology demonstrated in recent long-range missile tests. It also said North Korea is advancing in efforts to miniaturize nuclear warheads to mount on such missiles,” according to the AP. “North Korea is also developing small – and hard to detect – underwater craft, such as the 120-ton salmon-class submarine and the 300-ton shark class of vessel,” adds the Telegraph.

This new information only solidifies what everyone already knew – North Korea isn’t leaving anything to chance when it comes to military and continues to pump money into its expansion, while the rest of the country struggles with poverty.