The cyber attacks on Sony Pictures Entertainment have become probably the most scandalous and gossip-worthy foreign policy story of the past decade, with North Korea being rocketed back into the spotlight of the American public. During late November and early December of last year, hackers released thousands of private email conversations and other confidential data from Sony’s system, with the apparent goal of threatening Sony into not releasing a comedy film about assassinating Kim Jong Un, entitled The Interview. The FBI asserts that these security breaches were orchestrated by North Korean hackers, and the United States has just begun a new round of sanctions targeting North Korea. While North Korea claims that they were uninvolved with the data leaks and some security experts have blamed disgruntled insiders, the damage has already been done to North Korea’s already shattered reputation.
Interestingly, these cyber attacks follow a period of deliberate quiescence from North Korea, dismantling months of work by North Korean diplomats.
Early last November marked North Korea’s furthest foray into the international diplomatic sphere in years by attempting to prevent the passing of a UN resolution that harshly condemned North Korea's human rights track record.
North Korea's charm campaign began earlier in 2014, after a 372-page UN Commission of Inquiry report was published in February cataloguing a wide range of human rights abuses. While the report was dismissed by Pyongyang as an American plot, the regime moved to improve their human rights situation. North Korea participated in the UN Human Rights Council's "universal periodic review" (UPR), and accepted close to half of over 200 recommendations for improvement that arose during the review. Additionally, North Korea and Japan began bilateral investigations into the abduction of Japanese citizens during the late 1970s.
It was then later in the year, during November that North Korea really began to escalate its attempts to improve its image worldwide. After emerging from a long absence from the public view, Kim Jong Un approved a breach in typical North Korean diplomacy and gave his blessings for his diplomatic envoy to lobby at the UN. Whilst meeting with the UN special rapporteur, Marzuki Darusman, on North Korea, the North Korean diplomats were cautiously optimistic at the possibility of human rights investigators visiting the country. On November 8th, the regime released U.S. nationals Kenneth Bae and Matthew Miller, who were being held in labor camps for “hostile” acts against the North Korean government.
All of these attempts to relieve the mounting pressure from the international community seem to have had little effect. The Commission of Inquiry report on North Korean human rights was passed with an overwhelming majority in the UN General Assembly (GA).
The last time the GA had voted on a North Korean Human Rights Resolution, 16 countries voted no. This time around, North Korea only managed to garner 19 “no” votes.
In the wake of the failure, North Korea was whipped into a frenzy of aggressive threats and propaganda. In a statement issued on November 23rd by North Korea's National Defense Commission (NDC), North Korea warned of “catastrophic consequences” for the sponsors of the UN resolution. North Korean officials condemned the human rights situation in the United States following the controversy in Ferguson, Missouri, and compared the United States to Rome - an empire on the brink of collapse. On November 25th, a gargantuan state rally was held in Kim Il-sung Square in support of the regime and to protest the UN resolution.
However, while the international community is used to the boisterous claims of North Korea, the threats lack their usual bite. While North Korean officials alluded to conducting nuclear tests, the official statement released by the NDC, which is chaired by Kim Jung Un himself, did not explicitly mention nuclear tests at all. Instead, the nation's top political body skirted around the issue, referencing tough action and vaguely indicating nuclear threat. Now months after the UN resolution had passed North Korea is nowhere closer to actualizing any of its threats, nor had it released any more statements regarding future tests.
North Korea's actions have always been only tenuously connected to their threats, and this time around it seems that the nuclear threat is more peripheral than ever. The central reason for shying away seemed to be North Korea’s fragile alliance with Russia and China.
Russia and China have always been reluctant allies with North Korea, and the regime has historically garnered no favors by refusing to be a puppet state to its Communist big brothers. North Korea has attempted to play off both countries over the years, vacillating between the two nations but never committing.
As of late North Korea has been forced to side with Russia after building a large amount of distrust with the Chinese government. For example, the Chinese government recently built a $350 million dollar bridge to a highly lauded special economic zone, but the North Korean side of the bridge is still incomplete and the project has been put off indefinitely. The Chinese and North Korean relationship has been shifting over the years from one of mutual friendship to a more pragmatic situation. China has recently looked more favorably towards South Korea, with an FTA close to being finalized and Xi Jinping’s frequent meetings with Park Geun-hye. With a huge amount of debt accumulating in the North Korean-Chinese relationship, the regime is hoping to find a new lifeline in Russia.
In late November, a special emissary of Kim Jong Un wrapped up a week-long visit to Russia in order to garner support from Putin's government. The success of the endeavor is still up in the air, and many outside spectators feel that it is highly doubtful that North Korea will find much support from the nation. A joint railway renovation project was signed in early November and is supposed to be the first of a multibillion dollar set of projects to rebuild North Korea's train network, but the Russian firm involved with the project, Mostovik, is bankrupt.
However, over the past few years, both Russia and China have become extremely supportive of nuclear non-proliferation. Despite the very rocky relations between Russia and the West, the bilateral non-proliferation aspect of Russia's foreign policy has remained solid. Even during the height of American sanctions and the Ukraine Crisis, Russian officials participated in the 2010 New START weapons reduction treaty with American officials. For China, the issue seems more pragmatic in nature, with the nuclear test and oft-failed rocket tests unsettling the Beijing Government.
The UN Security Council voted at the end of December to discuss North Korea’s human rights situation, and now that the topic has been approved, it can be brought to the table at any time during future meetings. Just as with the GA vote, North Korea came out swinging with threats after the Security Council vote. But these threats remain just as empty as before; the China and Russia carrot is seem much more appealing than the UN stick.
Perhaps the aforementioned “catastrophic consequences” are the set of cyber attacks on Sony. If that’s the case, the international community should be relieved that executive’s emails, not nukes are the strongest weapon North Korea has in its arsenal.
a global affairs media network
Cyber-threats and Nuclear-threats: North Korea’s Convoluted Diplomacy
March 20, 2015
The cyber attacks on Sony Pictures Entertainment have become probably the most scandalous and gossip-worthy foreign policy story of the past decade, with North Korea being rocketed back into the spotlight of the American public. During late November and early December of last year, hackers released thousands of private email conversations and other confidential data from Sony’s system, with the apparent goal of threatening Sony into not releasing a comedy film about assassinating Kim Jong Un, entitled The Interview. The FBI asserts that these security breaches were orchestrated by North Korean hackers, and the United States has just begun a new round of sanctions targeting North Korea. While North Korea claims that they were uninvolved with the data leaks and some security experts have blamed disgruntled insiders, the damage has already been done to North Korea’s already shattered reputation.
Interestingly, these cyber attacks follow a period of deliberate quiescence from North Korea, dismantling months of work by North Korean diplomats.
Early last November marked North Korea’s furthest foray into the international diplomatic sphere in years by attempting to prevent the passing of a UN resolution that harshly condemned North Korea's human rights track record.
North Korea's charm campaign began earlier in 2014, after a 372-page UN Commission of Inquiry report was published in February cataloguing a wide range of human rights abuses. While the report was dismissed by Pyongyang as an American plot, the regime moved to improve their human rights situation. North Korea participated in the UN Human Rights Council's "universal periodic review" (UPR), and accepted close to half of over 200 recommendations for improvement that arose during the review. Additionally, North Korea and Japan began bilateral investigations into the abduction of Japanese citizens during the late 1970s.
It was then later in the year, during November that North Korea really began to escalate its attempts to improve its image worldwide. After emerging from a long absence from the public view, Kim Jong Un approved a breach in typical North Korean diplomacy and gave his blessings for his diplomatic envoy to lobby at the UN. Whilst meeting with the UN special rapporteur, Marzuki Darusman, on North Korea, the North Korean diplomats were cautiously optimistic at the possibility of human rights investigators visiting the country. On November 8th, the regime released U.S. nationals Kenneth Bae and Matthew Miller, who were being held in labor camps for “hostile” acts against the North Korean government.
All of these attempts to relieve the mounting pressure from the international community seem to have had little effect. The Commission of Inquiry report on North Korean human rights was passed with an overwhelming majority in the UN General Assembly (GA).
The last time the GA had voted on a North Korean Human Rights Resolution, 16 countries voted no. This time around, North Korea only managed to garner 19 “no” votes.
In the wake of the failure, North Korea was whipped into a frenzy of aggressive threats and propaganda. In a statement issued on November 23rd by North Korea's National Defense Commission (NDC), North Korea warned of “catastrophic consequences” for the sponsors of the UN resolution. North Korean officials condemned the human rights situation in the United States following the controversy in Ferguson, Missouri, and compared the United States to Rome - an empire on the brink of collapse. On November 25th, a gargantuan state rally was held in Kim Il-sung Square in support of the regime and to protest the UN resolution.
However, while the international community is used to the boisterous claims of North Korea, the threats lack their usual bite. While North Korean officials alluded to conducting nuclear tests, the official statement released by the NDC, which is chaired by Kim Jung Un himself, did not explicitly mention nuclear tests at all. Instead, the nation's top political body skirted around the issue, referencing tough action and vaguely indicating nuclear threat. Now months after the UN resolution had passed North Korea is nowhere closer to actualizing any of its threats, nor had it released any more statements regarding future tests.
North Korea's actions have always been only tenuously connected to their threats, and this time around it seems that the nuclear threat is more peripheral than ever. The central reason for shying away seemed to be North Korea’s fragile alliance with Russia and China.
Russia and China have always been reluctant allies with North Korea, and the regime has historically garnered no favors by refusing to be a puppet state to its Communist big brothers. North Korea has attempted to play off both countries over the years, vacillating between the two nations but never committing.
As of late North Korea has been forced to side with Russia after building a large amount of distrust with the Chinese government. For example, the Chinese government recently built a $350 million dollar bridge to a highly lauded special economic zone, but the North Korean side of the bridge is still incomplete and the project has been put off indefinitely. The Chinese and North Korean relationship has been shifting over the years from one of mutual friendship to a more pragmatic situation. China has recently looked more favorably towards South Korea, with an FTA close to being finalized and Xi Jinping’s frequent meetings with Park Geun-hye. With a huge amount of debt accumulating in the North Korean-Chinese relationship, the regime is hoping to find a new lifeline in Russia.
In late November, a special emissary of Kim Jong Un wrapped up a week-long visit to Russia in order to garner support from Putin's government. The success of the endeavor is still up in the air, and many outside spectators feel that it is highly doubtful that North Korea will find much support from the nation. A joint railway renovation project was signed in early November and is supposed to be the first of a multibillion dollar set of projects to rebuild North Korea's train network, but the Russian firm involved with the project, Mostovik, is bankrupt.
However, over the past few years, both Russia and China have become extremely supportive of nuclear non-proliferation. Despite the very rocky relations between Russia and the West, the bilateral non-proliferation aspect of Russia's foreign policy has remained solid. Even during the height of American sanctions and the Ukraine Crisis, Russian officials participated in the 2010 New START weapons reduction treaty with American officials. For China, the issue seems more pragmatic in nature, with the nuclear test and oft-failed rocket tests unsettling the Beijing Government.
The UN Security Council voted at the end of December to discuss North Korea’s human rights situation, and now that the topic has been approved, it can be brought to the table at any time during future meetings. Just as with the GA vote, North Korea came out swinging with threats after the Security Council vote. But these threats remain just as empty as before; the China and Russia carrot is seem much more appealing than the UN stick.
Perhaps the aforementioned “catastrophic consequences” are the set of cyber attacks on Sony. If that’s the case, the international community should be relieved that executive’s emails, not nukes are the strongest weapon North Korea has in its arsenal.
