The North Korean saboteurs funding Pyongyang’s nuclear programme

If you think that it is only Chinese infiltrators roaming across the West, including on our very shores, then think again. For all the ever-expanding scope of ballistic missiles, frigates, and drones in North Korea’s arsenal, the hermit kingdom has been adding another body of weaponry to its toolkit: cyberwarfare capabilities.

It is yet another example of the North Korean regime denying its people one thing but providing its confidantes with another. Whilst the North Korean people are forbidden from accessing the worldwide web, the Kim regime has long been cultivating a network of state-sponsored computer scientists and hackers to fulfil one of the country’s core goals, namely, making money to fund its nuclear programme.

Between 3,000 and 10,000 North Korean information technology workers are based abroad (with the majority in Russia, China, and Southeast Asia, such as Laos); a further 1,000 remain within North Korea.