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Comment by hyperpallium | Hacker News Reader

If North Korea is so poor, how can they afford nuclear weapons, ballistic missles and skilled hackers? In the long-term, an impoverished population would make it harder, not easier.

Are they not as poor as reported; or are they supplied by another?

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First two paragraphs

"When North Korean hackers tried to steal $1 billion from the New York Federal Reserve last year, only a spelling error stopped them. They were digitally looting an account of the Bangladesh Central Bank, when bankers grew suspicious about a withdrawal request that had misspelled “foundation” as “fandation.”

Even so, Kim Jong-un’s minions still got away with $81 million in that heist"

Exactly, and I wonder how much they made from WannaCry.

http://www.ibtimes.co.in/north-korea-behind-deadly-wannacry-...

Also we should remember that North Korean hackers don't receive Silicon Valley salaries; whatever remuneration they receive is purely at the pleasure of the palace.

Well, the NSA is behind the exploit. They're the ones who were sitting on the 0day that got leaked.

That's only 81 million revenue. The profit might be much smaller. The resources to Spy on the bank officials and creating the malware that style the credentials would certainly not have been free.

Because they put the military before anything else. They're still a nation state, and have enough funds to buy things (know-how included) in the black market.

Hacking apparently pays for itself and then some. I'm certain they're not paying them $150,000 a year plus 401K benefits.

>and have enough funds to buy things.

Yea but the real answer is opportunity cost.

When it is a gun to your head between physical labor, or winning favor with the guy with the guns, it's an easy decision. In other words, they dont need money to motivate you because your opportunity cost is so miserable.

And even if they didn't pay for themselves, all an IT worker neess is a computer and internet connection.

Look at some of the most talented black hat hackers, Barnaby Jack was just a guy with no education hanging out on welfare with a computer. Sabu was just a drug dealer living in the projects. Jeremy Hammond was a PC repairman that liked to go to political protests. We're kidding ourselves that to be a good engineer (or anything for that matter) you need to somehow be "high class," have branded credentials, and come with an expensive salary.

I was thinking also that ingenuity requires freedom (or, is greatly facilitated by it).

(Those examples happen to be people with more latitute than most.)

Roughly 25% of their GDP is spent on military spending. Military first is the official policy, likely due to the whole invasion problems they had in the 20th century.

Yeah, that and other nation building going around last few decades (iraq, libya, etc) You reap what you sow, I guess.

It's still a country of 25 million, and the state technically owns everything. The internet units most likely pay for themselves and then some, since much of their activity is theft.

They are very poor, and have gotten poorer since the last round of sanctions went through. However when you chose to build rockets rather than feed people, you can make your dollar stretch a bit further.

Actually North Korea has been growing economically, and rather substantially. The latest sanctions may change some of that.

EDIT: Much of that growth is (or was) due to limited market liberalization, the "jangmadang" or local marketplaces, tolerated since the famines of the 1990's, then more or less officially acknowledged. Trade with China is involved here.

https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-northkorea-economy-gdp/no...

Interesting, I knew their economy had picked up a bit what I wasn't aware of the extent, thanks for the link.

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