underestimate the cyber power the isolated nation of north korea can wield. people are always surprised because north korea is such a medieval society in many ways and yet have sophisticated high-tech capability to hack. the way they built it, also the way they at the same time are on the press pes of building an advanced nuclear capability. translator: the cyber war that started and no other country can attack north korea because there is no point. reporter: a former colonel in the north korea military who defected from kim jong-un came to hauo power. for years worked side-by-side with the hacking unit. notorious bureau 121. translator: only the very brightest students get to become hackers. they learn everything about the internet. then they work in the cyber research center, which is directly controlled by the
way they have at the same time around the precipice of building an advanced nuclear capability. translator: the cyber war has started and no other country can attack north korea because there is no point. reporter: jang is a former colonel who deflected before kim jong-un came to power. he worked side by side with the country s elite hacking unit, the notorious bureau 121. translator: only the very brightest students get to become hackers. they learn everything about the internet and then they work in the cyber research center which is directly controlled by the government. these hackers are all soldiers. when hay go to work in bureau 121, they re waeing uniforms? translator: yes. when they go from home to work, they wear their uniforms. they live in the military. they work with the military.
1,800 secret agents around the world, that it may be a much more organized attempt by north korea to try to move into this parallel war of cyber war. she also spoke with a defector who worked as a computer analyst for the north. listen to what he had to say about this bureau 121. translator: cyber attack capability is much more dangerous than nuclear weapons because often it s hard to find the attacker. at low cost an effort, north korea can cause an incredible impact on society, politically, economically and militarily. peter brooks is a security expert and former deputy assistant secretary of defense for asian and pacific affairs. good to have you with us, peter. good to be here. there s a lot of aspects of this that i think are particularly damaging and concerning. perhaps most chilling is if they can essentially censure us here