http://www.defenseone.com/technology/2015/01/problem-calling-cyber-attacks-terrorism/102309/
By Micah Zenko
Council on Foreign Relations
January 6, 2015
Yesterday, Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), the ranking member of the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee, appeared on CNN’sState of the Union where he
proposed placing North Korea on the State Department’s State Sponsors of
Terrorism list. Menendez contended that the additional sanctions announced
by the White House last week were insufficient, and that “we need to look
at putting North Korea back on the list of state sponsors of terrorism,
which would have far more pervasive consequences.” Beyond claiming this
would have additional consequences for North Korea, he disagreed with
President Obama’s characterization of the alleged Sony hack as “an act of
cyber vandalism”:
“Vandalism is when you break a window. Terrorism is when you destroy a
building. And what happened here is that North Korea landed a virtual bomb
on Sony’s parking lot, and ultimately had real consequences to it as a
company and to many individuals who work there.”
I recently wrote a piece that questioned the wisdom of placing North Korea
on the State Sponsors of Terrorism list, given that—according to the State
Department—the “The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) is not
known to have sponsored any terrorist acts since the bombing of a Korean
Airlines flight in 1987.” There is no question that North Korean agents
engage in any number of malicious and even violent actions in South Korea
and beyond, which might be labeled by some as acts of “terrorism.”
However, the U.S. Secretary of State, who is empowered under the 1979
legislation to determine which countries should be included on the list,
concluded that North Korea should not be on the list, and, in fact, the
Bush administration removed the country in 2008. Moreover, just as
removing North Korea from the list did not open up the country to U.S.
exports given the multitude of overlapping sanctions and restrictions,
placing them back on it will not have any demonstrable impact.
[...]
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