With war plan hack, North Korea finds the trump card

Washington could decide to limit intelligence sharing with Seoul

20171013_US South Korea joint training

The U.S. and South Korea will have to rethink their game plan now that they have lost the surprise factor.

KIM JAEWON, Nikkei staff writer

SEOUL/TOKYO -- Straight out of the text book of asymmetric warfare, North Korea's thousand-plus hackers have allegedly succeeded in breaching the South Korean defense ministry's data center, stealing 235 gigabytes of military secrets.

It is equivalent to some 15 million pages of documents and includes classified plans jointly drawn by the United States and South Korea. These contingencies include a surprise attack to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and other important figures, according to South Korean lawmaker Rhee Cheol-hee of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea.

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