North Korea Preparing To Conduct Cyber, Terror Attacks In South Korea, Intelligence Officials Say

Following widespread condemnation of North Korea’s satellite launch earlier in February and its alleged hydrogen bomb test in January, South Korean officials warned that Kim Jong Un asked his military officials and intelligence agents to boost preparations for launching terror attacks in South Korea, according to Yonhap. The report comes as Seoul is working with the U.S. and United Nations Security Council to expand sanctions against Pyongyang after the satellite launch on Feb. 7.

Lee Chul-woo, a representative for South Korea’s state intelligence agency, attended an urgent meeting — between the ruling party and the government — over North Korea and said Thursday that the North's Reconnaissance General Bureau was preparing to conduct disruptive acts, including cyber attacks, in the South. The government reportedly told lawmakers at the meeting that North Korea may also poison or kidnap South Korean nationals.

Lee added, according to Yonhap, that South Korea’s intelligence service was trying to collect more information on the possible attacks by Pyongyang.

On Monday, Oh Joon, the South Korean ambassador to the U.N. Security Council, called for extraordinary measures against North Korea to make it evident that the international community would not tolerate Pyongyang’s “nuclear blackmail.”

Oh reportedly said: “If we go on with business as usual vis-a-vis the DPRK's [the Democratic People's Republic of Korea] repeated nuclear tests and advancement of missile capabilities, the entire world could fall prey to the DPRK's nuclear blackmail,” and added the violations were “a clear threat to international peace and security, and a blatant challenge to the international community.”

Four U.S. F-22 stealth fighter aircraft also conducted exercises with South Korean jets near Seoul on Wednesday, in a show of strength following Pyongyang’s rocket launch and nuclear test.