N. Korea expands Reconnaissance General Bureau's role, boosting spy and cyber operations

North Korea has moved to expand the functions of its Reconnaissance General Bureau — the agency responsible for intelligence collection and covert operations against South Korea and overseas targets. The move continues Pyongyang's push to strengthen clandestine capabilities since it redefined inter-Korean relations as a relationship between "two hostile states."

According to Rodong Sinmun, the Workers' Party daily, Kim Jong-un presided over the first enlarged meeting of the ninth-term Party Central Military Commission on Thursday and set out tasks to "expand the functions and duties of the Reconnaissance General Bureau in multiple directions and raise its military reconnaissance, intelligence and information-gathering capabilities."

Kim declared "important tasks" for the entire military, calling for the armed forces to be "thoroughly field-oriented and modernized with real combat capabilities enhanced," the paper reported. Discussions also covered "updating the technological infrastructure of the combat system and quantitatively and qualitatively expanding and strengthening nuclear forces," as well as plans to "standardize, specialize and modernize military bases across each branch of the armed forces."

In addition, the paper said tasks and measures were raised "to expand the functions and duties of the Reconnaissance General Bureau in multiple directions and raise military reconnaissance and intelligence-gathering capabilities."

The Reconnaissance General Bureau is an expanded and reorganized successor to the former Reconnaissance General Bureau, which was known primarily as a South Korea-focused covert operations agency. It serves as North Korea's core intelligence organ, handling military intelligence collection, operations against South Korea and overseas targets, and cyberwarfare. Analysts assess that it performs functions partly analogous to South Korea's Defense Intelligence Agency in terms of military intelligence, and to the National Intelligence Service in terms of covert operations against the South and abroad.

The predecessor agency is believed to have masterminded provocative operations against South Korea, including the sinking of the naval corvette Cheonan, as well as various hacking and cyberwarfare campaigns. North Korea has in recent years expanded its surveillance and reconnaissance assets — including military reconnaissance satellites and drones — so the Reconnaissance General Bureau is expected to broaden its role beyond traditional infiltration and covert operations to encompass cyberwarfare, electronic warfare and space-based reconnaissance.

Kim stressed that "the safety and peace of the country and its people cannot be defended by will alone. True peace can only be won when a powerful army is built, and when all things can be controlled and threats suppressed by that powerful force."

South Korean intelligence authorities are expected to closely monitor how the expanded role of the Reconnaissance General Bureau will affect North Korea's covert operations and provocations against the South.