Threat: A North Korean commando
pictured during a training exercise earlier this year. North Korea sent
five commando units to the US during the 1990s according to a
declassified report
They
'had agents in place to attack American nuclear power plants', it
continues, 'in the event of hostilities between the United States and
DPRK'.
Military
experts believe that the commando units were brought in because at the
time North Korea lacked any long-range missiles capable of hitting the
U.S.
The
report adds: 'One of the driving forces behind the establishment of the
units and infiltration of operatives was the slow progress in
developing a multi-stage ballistic missile.'
The rogue state was then under the control of Kim Jong il
Today the rogue state is believed to have at least two types of long-range ballistic missile capable of reaching the U.S.
North
Korea has one of the largest number of Special Forces in the world with
more than 60,000 commandos under control of the shadowy Reconnaissance
Bureau, part of the country’s Armed Forces.
The
Bureau is known to have been behind a string of terror attacks over the
years including airline bombing, kidnaps and assassinations.
The source of the information is not disclosed but may have come from a defector or electronic surveillance.
The redacted document was recently released thorough a Freedom of Information Act request, the Washington Free Beacon reports.
It
comes after hackers, believed to be working on behalf of North Korea,
successfully forced Sony to withdraw a comedy film about a plot to
assassinate Kim Jong un.
The
Interview, which depicts a catastrophic attempt to assassinate the
North Korean dictator, will not be shown in cinemas and is understood to
have been shelved indefinitely.
The
hackers, who are believed to work for a sophisticated cyber-warfare
cell called Bureau 121, issued a a terrifying warning to American
audiences, telling them to ‘remember September 11, 2001’.
They
stole an estimated 100 terabytes of data including unreleased films and
could cost the movie studio hundreds of millions of dollars.
The release of the report comes after
hackers, believed to be working on behalf of North Korea, successfully
forced Sony to withdraw the comedy film the Interview (pictured) about a
plot to assassinate Kim Jong un
The
U.S. government said yesterday it was weighing the proportional
response to the sophisticated perpetrator of a cyberattack that crippled
Sony Pictures, exposed its executives and led to the cancellation of
the film 'The Interview.'
Spokesman
Josh Earnest said the White House is not in a position to confirm that
North Korea is responsible for the hack at Sony, after a US official
said Wednesday that Washington may soon formally announce the
involvement of the Pyongyang government.
The effect of any response, such as cyber retaliation or financial sanctions, could be limited, U.S. experts said.