North Korea made an announcement that it has finally developed ‘quantum cryptography’ technology, which was seen as a dream technology. It is a technology that makes wiretapping impossible by using characteristics of quantum physics. If North Korea commercializes this technology earlier than South Korea, balance of military communication will break apart.
According to a professional media in North Korea, Workers’ Newspaper had reported on the 1st that Kim Il Sung University has developed quantum cryptography technology. “Because quantum cryptography technology applies mysterious characteristics of quantum physics into information processing technology, it makes wiretapping impossible at source.” reported Workers’ Newspaper. “It is a task that cannot be delayed anymore since North Korea’s enemies such as the U.S. and others are using high-tech methods to spy North Korea.”
“Along with deep knowledge of quantum physics, professional knowledge of many areas such as quantization technology of laser light, division of light and synthetic technology, signal controlling technology, creation of crypto-ignition and decoding technology from a transmitter-receiver and others are required to develop this technology.” mentioned Workers’ Newspaper about this technology in detail.
“Information that is mentioned by this article cannot me made up if North Korea did not actually develop this technology.” said an expert from South Korea’s quantum cryptography communication industry. “There is a high chance that North Korea actually has developed quantum cryptography communication technology.”
“North Korea has excellent technical skills in basic science so much so that it is able to develop nuclear weapons.” said An Do-yeol who is a named endowed chair professor of University of Seoul’s Electrical Computer Engineering Department. “With that level of technical skills, it can be seen that a report of North Korea succeeding in developing this technology is true.”
It is predicted that it will still take some time for North Korea to actually commercialize quantum cryptography communication. There are not any countries that have officially commercialized this technology so far. However one thing that is sure is that competition in development of technologies with South Korea has started. If South Korea falls behind in commercialization, there will be an asymmetry in military strength of communication from a military aspect. While South Korea will not be able to wiretap North Korean army, North Korean army will be able to wiretap South Korean army. “It is heard that North Korea is very skilled in cyber warfare by promoting hacking groups.” said Professor An. “If North Korea applies quantum cryptography communication to military communication earlier than South Korea, South Korea will fall behind in military strength of communication.”
Although South Korea has developed quantum cryptography communication technology, it has not commercialized it yet. Even though South Korean Government is pushing for medium and long-term promotion project of quantum information communication with a goal of becoming a leading country globally by 2020, it is currently not able to make any resolute investments due to lack of budget. Although Seo Sang-ki, who is a member of Saenuri Party, proposed a special law for quantum industry last November to recover this problem, National Assembly is not doing anything about it.
Staff Reporter Kim, Yongjoo | kyj@etnews.com