Former and incumbent lawmakers of the ruling and opposition parties plan to hold a conference with Japanese and British lawmakers in London later this week to discuss how to deal with North Korea’s cyber hacking attempts, a lawmaker said Monday.
The conference, set for Thursday, will be co-hosted by the International Parliamentarians’ Coalition for Asian Human Rights led by Rep. Ha Tae-keung of the ruling People Power Party (PPP) and the All-Party Parliamentary Group on North Korea led by David Alton, a member of the British House of Lords, according to Ha.
South Korean participants include Reps. Yun Chang-hyun of the PPP and Yang Jung-suk, and independent and former lawmaker Hong Il-pyo, while Japanese participants, including Rep. Masaharu Nakagawa, will attend online.
The conference plans to deal with the issue of North Korean human rights and ways for the international community to deal jointly with cyber hacking attempts by North Korea.
During the conference, officials of South Korea’s foreign ministry and British government agencies plan to hold presentations on how the international community can work together to counter North Korea’s hacking attempts.
“According to the National Intelligence Service, about 1.18 million hacking attacks on our government and public institutions are detected every day, and about 55 percent of them are estimated to have been tied to North Korea,” Ha said in a press release.
Hacking attempts are believed to be focused recently on cryptocurrency theft as well as on such areas as nuclear, space and defense industry sectors, Ha said.
North Korea-linked hackers have stolen some 140 billion won (US$106.8 million) worth of cryptocurrency assets from South Korea since 2017, according to Ha. Globally, the total damage is estimated to have reached around 1.9 trillion won since 2015.
“In order to protect people’s assets and cope with security threats from North Korea’s ever-advancing hacking attempts, strengthening cooperation and joint responses with the international community is more important than anything else,” Ha said.
“We will focus our discussions with British parliament and government officials on establishing an international consultative group and coming up with international norms dealing with North Korea’s hacking,” he said.
Ahead of the event, South Korean delegates plan to hold a demonstration in front of the North Korean embassy in London, demanding the county end its cyber attacks. They will also hold a separate round table discussion with human rights groups, experts and North Korean refugees residing in the country.
Source: Yonhap News Agency