Will S. Korea refer NK`s hacking of Nonghyup to UN?

After securing evidence of North Korea`s April 12 cyber attack on the National Agricultural Cooperatives Federation, or Nonghyup, South Korea could refer the incident to the U.N. Security Council.

Seoul will also refer Pyongyang’s previous DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks in July 2009 and in March this year, or put it on the agenda of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Regional Forum in July in Indonesia.

Diplomatic authorities in Seoul, however, are in a bind since solid proof confirming Pyongyang’s involvement is difficult to obtain.

A government source in Seoul said Wednesday, “Because of the lack of absolute evidence, we are closely reviewing a hacking incident in Estonia in 2007.”

In April 2007, hackers alleged to be Russians mobilized more than 1 million computers to launch a DDoS attack on Estonia. The Baltic nation with a population of just 1.3 million suffered a shutdown of the national backbone of its communications network as well as government and telecommunication networks due to the attack.

Tallinn referred the attack to a meeting of North Atlantic Treaty Organization defense ministers in June the same year, but NATO cyber experts failed to find evidence directly implicating Russian involvement. So NATO could not refute Moscow’s denial and the international community did not condemn Moscow.

The government source in Seoul said, “The case of Estonia shows that bringing up the issue in the international community without solid evidence of the North`s role in the attack will be useless.”

More proof is necessary to conclude that the hacking of the Nonghyup computer was perpetrated by North Korea, the source added.

Another problem is lack of international laws that determine cyber attack as a crime. The government source said, however, “A cyber attack is an illegal act, which violates international laws, as it runs counter to the U.N. Charter that bans acts infringing on and threatening global peace and safety.”

The Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministry in Seoul also says Pyongyang’s cyber attack violated the general principal of international laws that prohibits damaging other countries.

zeitung@donga.com