North Korea denies cyberattack on South Korean officials

North Korea on March 13 denied information that it had launched cyber attacks on South Korean officials, saying Seoul's accusations were "fabrications".

North Korea denies cyberattacks on South Korea in newspaper editorial. Illustration photo: Reuters

South Korea's spy agency told lawmakers on March 11 that North Korea has recently stepped up cyberattacks against South Korea and has hacked into the mobile phones of 40 national security officials,Reutersquoted members of parliament as saying after the meeting.

"South Korea is claiming North Korea's cyberattacks and using them for political purposes," an editorial in North Korea's Rodong Sinmun newspaper said today. The article reported that South Korea's claim that North Korea's cyberattacks were aimed at legitimizing a controversial new "anti-terrorism" law.

"One cannot expect anything from the sound of a crow eating a corpse. However, we cannot tolerate such abrupt, provocative and blatant accusations against a neighboring country."

Previously, the South Korean National Intelligence Service also announced that North Korea tried to hack into the email accounts of railway employees in order to attack the traffic control system. However, South Korea stopped the plot and blocked the employees' accounts.

South Korea is on high alert for the threat of cyberattacks from North Korea, following Pyongyang's nuclear test in January and satellite launch in February, which the West saw as a cover for a long-range missile test. The United Nations has approved new sanctions on North Korea following these developments.

Tensions are also rising on the Korean Peninsula as South Korea and the United States are conducting their largest-ever annual joint military exercises. The US aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis also docked in South Korea today to participate in the exercises.

According to VNE