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Soonha Bae
Senior Researcher in Cybersecurity Policy at South Korea's National Security Research Institute; expert on U.S.-ROK cyber cooperation and critical infrastructure defense.
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Jun 17, 2026
Building Cyber Resilience: The Future of U.S.–ROK Cyber Cooperation
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3:34Lauryn WilliamsHOST
So first, the question is, you know, how has the nature of North Korea's cyber threat evolved in recent years, particularly in areas such as cryptocurrency theft and the use of overseas IT workers, and how is this affecting current response approaches? So maybe I'll turn to Soonha to start there, and maybe we can get reflections from the full group.
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3:54Sunha BaeGUEST
The North Korea has gained a significant strategic advantages in cyberspace despite its, uh, limited resource.
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4:02Sunha BaeGUEST
It has generated a large amount of the revenues through this cryptocurrency theft and oversight global network.
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4:08Sunha BaeGUEST
At the same time, these activities are weakening the, uh, overall impact of the international sanction.
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4:14Sunha BaeGUEST
The line between North Korean IT worker and the malicious cyber actor is also becoming increasingly blurred.
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4:21Sunha BaeGUEST
We are now seeing the more case where IT workers are directly participating in the intrusion and the data exfiltration activities.
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4:30Sunha BaeGUEST
And AI tools are making this problem even bigger, so they make a cyber operation easier, and that in the past, these activities rely on a small group of elite hackers, but AI tools are now increasing their capability and allowing North Korea to involve many more people in cyber operation.
17 MINS LATER
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21:26Lauryn WilliamsHOST
Soonha, how do you see or how would you lay out the potential on the flip side risks associated with this sort of strategy, more proactive and proactive engagement, and how do you think that they might be managed?