Shortly after launching its “Operation Free Korea” initiative, notorious hacking group Anonymous has fired its first shots at North Korea. The group had demanded supreme leader Kim Jong-un resign, in addition to abandoning his nuclear ambitions and installing free democracy across the Asian country. Earlier this week, hackers belonging to Anonymous claimed to have stolen the passwords of 15,000 users from the North Korean propaganda website Uriminzokkiri. After its demands were not met, the group has begun to take down various properties belonging to Pyongyang.
Both the Twitter and Flickr accounts belonging to Uriminzokkiri were compromised early Thursday morning. Anonymous members uploaded images making fun of Kim Jong-un to the photo-sharing page and mocked the country using its own Twitter feed. In addition to taking down Uriminzokkiri and its social properties, the group defaced books and music store Ryomyong and a website belonging to a North Korea-linked political group, known as AINDF.
Anonymous claimed in a recent statement that it has members inside North Korea who are aiding them with their attack.
“We have a few guys on the ground who managed to bring the real Internet into the country using a chain of long distance WiFi repeaters with proprietary frequencies, so they’re not jammed (yet),” the group wrote. “We also have access to some N.K. phone landlines which are connected to Kwangmyong through dial-ups. Last missing peace [sic] of puzzle was to interconnect the two networks, which those guys finally managed to do.”
The group praised its operatives and asked others to stand up against governments around the world.
“Citizens of North Korea, South Korea, USA, and the world, don’t allow your governments to separate you,” Anonymous said. “We are all one. We are the people. Our enemies are the dictators and regimes, our goals are freedom and peace and democracy. United as one, divided by zero, we can never be defeated!”
