The Reconnaissance General Bureau ( ko, 정찰총국; RGB, Reconnaissance Bureau of the General Staff Department) is a

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and T ...

intelligence agency An intelligence agency is a government agency responsible for the collection, analysis, and exploitation of information in support of law enforcement, national security, military, public safety, and foreign policy objectives. Means of inf ...

that manages the state's

clandestine operation A clandestine operation is an intelligence or military operation carried out in such a way that the operation goes unnoticed by the general population or specific enemy forces. Until the 1970s, clandestine operations were primarily political in ...

s. Most of their operations have a specific focus on Japan, South Korea, and the United States. It was established in 2009. The RGB is regarded as North Korea's primary intelligence and clandestine operations organ. Although its original missions have traditionally focused on clandestine operations such as commando raids, infiltrations and disruptions, the RGB has since come to control most of the known North Korean cyber capabilities, mainly under Bureau 121 or its speculated successor, the Cyber Warfare Guidance Bureau. It was headed at one time by

Kim Yong-chol Kim Yong-chol (; born 1946) is a North Korean general and politician who currently serves as Vice Chairman of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea for South Korean affairs and head of the United Front Department. From Februar ...

as the first head of the RGB.

History

It is the direct successor of the

General Staff Department of the Korean People's Army The General Staff Department (GSD) of the Korean People's Army (KPA) is the senior military leadership of the armed forces of North Korea responsible for its administrative, operational and logistical needs. The current Chief of the General Staff ...

's Reconnaissance Bureau ( ko, 정찰국) (which was responsible for several North Korean acts of espionage such as the

1996 Gangneung submarine infiltration incident The 1996 Gangneung submarine infiltration incident occurred on 18 September 1996, near the South Korean town of Gangneung. The incident was one of the more serious instances of North Korean espionage involving the Reconnaissance Bureau (reco ...

). In addition, two former offices of the

Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea The Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea ( ko, 조선로동당 중앙위원회) is the highest party body between national meetings of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), the ruling party of North Korea. According to WPK rules, th ...

(WPK) were moved into the Reconnaissance General Bureau, namely the WPK's External Investigations and Intelligence Department ( ko, 조선노동당 대외정보조사부), also known as Office 35, and the WPK's Operations Department, which was responsible for kidnapping foreign nationals during the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because t ...

. The RGB was established in 2009 to consolidate various intelligence and special operations agencies of the North Korean government, meaning that units previously tasked with "political warfare, foreign intelligence, propaganda, subversion, kidnapping, special operations, and assassinations" were merged into one single organization. In August 2010, an RGB agent posing as a defector was caught by South Korean police for planning to assassinate

Hwang Jang-yop Hwang Jang-yop ( ko, 황장엽; 17 February 192310 October 2010) was a North Korean politician who served as the Chairman of the Supreme People's Assembly from 1972–1983 and was largely responsible for crafting ''Juche'', the state ideology o ...

, who had defected from North Korea in 1997. The previous month two North Korean spies had been imprisoned for plotting to murder Hwang. North Korea denied involvement, but the later defector "Kim Kuk-song" said that he had personally directed the July 2010 operation. "Kim" also said "I can tell you that North Korean operatives are playing an active role in various civil society organisations as well as important institutions in South Korea.". A defector, a former senior colonel known by the pseudonym Kim Kuk-song, whose identity has been verified by the BBC, had a senior position in the RGB until 2014, and revealed much information about the Bureau's activities in a 2021 interview with the BBC. On October 31, 2017, two suspects were arrested by

Public Security police In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

in Beijing in an attempt to assassinate Kim Han-sol. They were part of a seven-man team sent by the RGB. On November 12, 2021, an alleged RGB agent led an operation in Japan to illegally obtain foreign currency to shore up the North Korean economy by ordering two South Korean nationals to conduct a business that was against their official status of residence. On February 15, 2022, an upcoming UN report mentions that the RGB is involved in running hotels/casinos/travel agencies/restaurants/bars throughout Cambodia.

Cyberwarfare Operational Role

The foundations for North Korean cyber operations were built in the 1990s, after North Korean computer scientists returned from travel abroad proposing to use the Internet as a means to spy on enemies and attack militarily superior opponents such as the United States and South Korea. Subsequently, students were sent abroad to China to participate in top computer science programs. The cyberwarfare unit was elevated to top priority in 2003 following the

US invasion of Iraq The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a United States-led invasion of the Republic of Iraq and the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 (air) and 20 March 2003 (ground) and lasted just over one month, including 26 ...

Organization

The structure of the RGB is as follows as of 2021:

Command

Reconnaissance missions are also partially overseen by the General Staff Department (GSD) of the Korean People's Army (KPA). As of 2014, experts argued that "North Korea does not seem to have yet organized these units into an overarching Cyber Command." The RGB seems to report directly to the

National Defense Commission The National Defence Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (NDC) () was the highest state institution for military and national defence leadership in North Korea, which also served as the highest governing institution of the cou ...

, as well as

Kim Jong-un Kim Jong-un (; , ; born 8 January 1982) is a North Korean politician who has been Supreme Leader of North Korea since 2011 and the leader of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) since 2012. He is a son of Kim Jong-il, who was North Korea's sec ...

as the supreme commander of the Korean People's Army.

Methods

Until 2017 many North Korean spies were arrested in South Korea. But far fewer were arrested in the following years, apparently as the North started using new technologies rather than old-fashioned spying. In particular, high-profile defectors warned that Pyongyang had created a body of 6,000 skilled

hacker A hacker is a person skilled in information technology who uses their technical knowledge to achieve a goal or overcome an obstacle, within a computerized system by non-standard means. Though the term ''hacker'' has become associated in popu ...

References