00:00North Korea's hackers have been blamed for some of the world's biggest cyber thefts,
00:05including the record-breaking $6.3 billion attack on cryptocurrency exchange Binance.
00:11Investigators linked a Binance theft to a North Korean hacking group known as TraderT
00:17rader.
00:17Pyongyang denies responsibility, but experts and defectors say
00:22those operatives are not recruited overnight.
00:25They are the product of a state program that identifies some of the country's brightest students
00:30and steers them into years of specialized training.
00:34Researchers say North Korea launched its Cyber Warfare Unit in the late 1990s
00:39and expanded it under leader Kim Jong-un, creating a pipeline that turns top students into cyber operatives,
00:46software developers and overseas IT workers.
00:50Authorities pick up to 200 of the country's smartest students a year from middle school,
00:55steering them towards computer science, according to defectors.
01:00The strongest performers move on to elite universities,
01:03where they study subjects ranging from advanced mathematics to cryptocurrency systems.
01:09Alex Zebrick of blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis says,
01:13North Korea's state backing gives its hackers an advantage most cyber criminals do not have.
01:18In the world of cyber crime, oftentimes, you know, if you make a mistake,
01:23that can be one mistake that is all law enforcement needs to get you.
01:26You know, they're state sponsors, so they're doing this for the regime,
01:29so they're going to continue even after successes.
01:32But even after failures, they'll continue because it's very hard for the international community to actually take action
01:43against them.
01:43North Korean state media do not publicly celebrate such hackers' achievements,
01:48but they regularly highlight students who show talent for programming.
01:52In 2015, Kim Jong-un oversaw the opening of Mirai Scientist Street in Pyongyang,
01:58a housing development for scientific and technical workers,
02:02a spacious apartment in Pyongyang,
02:04the ability to spend time with their parents,
02:07and as much as 30 percent of the highest profits for the hackers' military unit
02:12are some of the perks offered to the top hackers.
02:16Here's Nam Pada of the Seoul-based human rights group Peace Corps.
02:21There are very few fields where people can earn even that much,
02:25so a lot of North Korea's brightest students want to study IT and become IT workers.
02:31But Nam says authorities enforce strict revenue targets for many IT workers.
02:36There is a quota, and they have to fill it by any means necessary.
02:40At the end or beginning of each month,
02:42money must be sent to the manager's account for that month's target to count as achieved.
02:48If they fail, they face many kinds of punishment or public humiliation,
02:54which makes life unbearable for them.
02:56Analysts say North Korea's combination of specialized training and state support
03:01has created one of the world's most persistent cyber threats.
03:05As such, Kim Jong-un's cyber army is likely to keep growing, more capable, and more ambitious.
