S. Korea imposes sanctions ‘Kimsuky’ for satellite technology theft

South Korea announced new sanctions against ‘Kimsuky,’ a North Korean hacking group believed responsible for major cyber attacks and the theft of satellites and space development technologies worldwide. These sanctions serve as a warning against launching satellites in response to North Korea's recent attempt to launch Chollima-1, a new spacecraft carrying the military reconnaissance satellite Malligyong-1. In addition, South Korea issued a joint cybersecurity advisory with the U.S. Department of State on North Korean hacking campaigns, stating that Kimsuky conducts social engineering campaigns to gather intelligence.

“In addition, North Korean hacking organizations including ‘Kimsuky’ have been directly or indirectly involved in the development of North Korea’s so-called ‘satellite’ by stealing advanced technologies globally related to weapons development, artificial satellites, and space,” the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on the day.

The North Korean hacking group has been cyberattacking against countries worldwide for over a decade. South Korea has been a target of four notable cyberattacks orchestrated by Kimsuky. These include the 2014 document leakage from Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power, the 2016 impersonation of the National Intelligence Service (NIS), an incident last year in which Kimsuky posed as a South Korean reporter, a National Assembly member's office, and a public institution in e-mails, and the hacking incident in July 2021, where Kimsuky gained unauthorized access to the records of 7,000 patients at Seoul National University Hospital.

This sanction marks the eighth independent sanction on the North and the fourth independent sanction related to the cyber domain issued by the Yoon Suk Yeol administration.


Na-Ri Shin journari@donga.com