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News reports claim that North Korea's Internet access is suddenly nearly non-existent. I hope we are responsible. This dopey foolish country needs to be beotch-slapped. If we can actually destroy their Internet access, it would be a wonderful thing.
The craziness is that even if it isn't us, it would be us. They could sabotage their own internet connection and blame it on us and use this as the reason for future cyber attacks.
The craziness is that even if it isn't us, it would be us. They could sabotage their own internet connection and blame it on us and use this as the reason for future cyber attacks.
North Korea is a basket-case of a country that uses crises for a variety of reasons, including extracting concessions from foreign powers (see also: extortion) and distracting its peasantry from the regimes myriad shortcomings - it is hardly so lacking for reasons to lash out that it has to manufacture them.
Note that I am not saying these reasons are justifiable, acceptable or reasonable. But they are logical means to ends.
Kim Jong-un is young and inexperienced, and is still consolidating his power. In part, that power is based on an extreme cult of personality built around not just himself but his lineage. Essentially, his reaction to the film The Interview was one of fear - he was concerned about the damage it might do to his tenuous grip on power. So whatever retribution any other state was ever going to take, including the United States, was never going to be so bad as to dissuade the hack of Sony. That's not a lack of will on anyone's part, it's just the cold hard realpolitik of dealing with a country that holds a sword of Damocles over an ally and one of the 15 largest economies on the planet, and is plausibly unstable enough to let that sword drop should it feel sufficiently threatened.
On the other hand, North Korea does need to be spanked sufficiently hard as to make such moves as the recent hack costly enough that it rarely goes to such lengths. And any retribution serves notice to other powers as to what happens if they try such a thing.
It appears that this is what is playing out right now.
Since most of NK citizens don't have Internet access I'm not sure what damage this will do except to make Americans feel better. They were barely on the grid in the first place. Besides, Kim Il Jun still has those binoculars!
Since most of NK citizens don't have Internet access I'm not sure what damage this will do except to make Americans feel better. They were barely on the grid in the first place. Besides, Kim Il Jun still has those binoculars!
I could see them shutting down their own system if outside hackers were to tear down any barriers to the N Korean people to access anything they want outside their country.
That would be something the NK Government would never abide with.
Since most of NK citizens don't have Internet access I'm not sure what damage this will do except to make Americans feel better. They were barely on the grid in the first place. Besides, Kim Il Jun still has those binoculars!
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