SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea said Tuesday that rival North Korea has a 6,000-member cyber army dedicated to disrupting the South's military and government, a dramatic increase from an earlier estimate of 3,000 such specialists.
Without elaborating, Seoul's Defense Ministry also said in a report that North Korea may also have gained the ability 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.
There is considerable mystery, and outside debate, about the state of North Korea's opaque nuclear and missile programs, which it has persisted in pursuing for decades despite widespread domestic poverty and heavy international sanctions and criticism.
North Korea has conducted three nuclear tests since 2006, the most recent in early 2013, and experts believe it has a handful of crude nuclear bombs. Many outside observers speculate that it has not mastered the technology to make the bombs small enough to put on long-range missiles, although some say it may be able to arm shorter-range missiles with warheads.
No comments:
Post a Comment