North Korea is bolstering its cyber warfare capabilities through its Reconnaissance General Bureau, Pyongyang’s premier intelligence body, with some north Korean defectors comparing its abilities to that of the U.S.’ Central Intelligence Agency.

The Reconnaissance General Bureau, which is thought to have carried out the March 20 and March 26 hacking attacks on South Korean news and financial organizations, forms the core of the North’s cyber warfare and terrorism operations.

Headed by Kim Yong-chol, a four-star general known for his extreme hard-line stance on South Korea, the Reconnaissance General Bureau is thought to have masterminded six acts of cyber terrorism against Seoul and other nations since 2009.

Established in 2009 by combining the spy and special operations arms of North Korea’s communist party and the military, the Reconnaissance General Bureau consists of six departments and the cyber-warfare command bureau, also known as the 121 bureau.

Pyongyang has been building up its cyber warfare capabilities since the late 1980s, employing its leading universities to train experts.

As a result of plans that have been in the works for decades, the Reconnaissance General Bureau is thought to have as many as 3,000 personnel tasked with hacking and distributing computer viruses.

In addition to the bureau, Seoul suspects North Korea to have a number of organizations for cyber operations within the communist party.

Seoul also estimates that about 1,000 hackers are trained each year in North Korea, and that Pyongyang has around 12,000 cyber warfare experts.

In addition to cyber warfare, the Reconnaissance General Bureau is thought to have masterminded the sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan in 2010, and the artillery barrage that resulted in the deaths of two South Korean marines and two civilians on Yeonpyeongdo Island in the West Sea.

By Choi He-suk  (cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)