South Korea’s Cyber Defence and Digital Cooperation with the EU

Abstract

This chapter examines the evolving and imminent North Korean cyber threat and primarily highlights the role of the Reconnaissance General Bureau (and its cyber footprints as the core institutional system of North Korea’s cyber operations). The chapter also examines the possibility of an EU-South Korea cyber-strategic partnership based on the respective cybersecurity strategies against North Korea’s threats and other cybersecurity concerns and, to this end, formulates four policy recommendations to improve South Korea’s cybersecurity defence posture which are relevant for further South Korea-EU cyber cooperation: the establishment of a whole-of-the-government consensus on the necessity of countermeasures against cybersecurity threats, the construction of central authority in charge of overall cybersecurity policies, and the institutionalization of international cooperation in cybersecurity through various channels. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.