By Qin An

The ROK Defense Ministry recently issued a statement that the ROK military participated for the first time in the multinational exercise Cyber Flag 23 hosted by US Cyber Command. The exercise was held in the US from October 24 to 28, involving 25 countries.

An annual multinational exercise held by the US Cyber Command since 2011, Cyber Flag aims to strengthen the cybersecurity cooperation between the US and its allies and partners. The ROK military also assigned troops to participate this time. The background and features of the exercise have captured extensive attention.

First, this is a Red-Blue confrontational cyber warfare exercise involving America’s main allies. According to the ROK military, the Cyber Flag is an important opportunity for intensifying the preparedness and partnership among the allies in response to cyber threats and will build stable and close cyber cooperation among American allies and partners. It was similar to the Cyber Offensive and Defensive Exercise that was organized by the US in China’s Taiwan region in 2019. At that time, the US rallied more than ten countries, including Australia and Czech, and focused on the financial system, giving top priority to sustained and disruptive cyberattacks on key cyber infrastructure, the economy, and the society over “landing operations”.

Second, this is a cyber operation no less deterrent than a NATO military operation, which is inserting the Cyber Flag in Asia. That the news about ROK’s participation in the exercise was announced by the military spoke well of the country’s intention to fully merge into the US-led cyber operation. In May this year, the ROK National Intelligence Service announced that it has become a formal member of the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence, the first Asian country to join the organization. On September 27, NATO Council announced its acceptance of Seoul’s request to designate the ROK embassy in Belgium as the country’s mission to NATO, making the ROK a vanguard of NATO’s expansion to Asia.

Third, the US and NATO are whetting their claws to get ready for cyber warfare. Right before America pulled back its troops from Afghanistan on April 30, 2021, US Defense Secretary Austin said in his policy address that the withdrawal was made to get ready for the next war in cyberspace. In other words, the US military has already put waging a cyber war above traditional war. It is a favored approach to “offshore balancing” and can help the country start a proxy war while keeping itself at a safe distance.

ROK’s first-time participation in the US-led multinational exercise Cyber Flag threatens an ever-closer Cyber NATO. In view of this, we must pay close attention to the following three aspects and earnestly get ready for military preparedness.

To begin with, we must be wary of surrounding countries, especially major IT powers, joining America’s cyber exercise. ROK is not only strong in IT, but also a vital chip manufacturer in the world. We must be wary of its current tendency and its impacts on the Korean Peninsula situation.

We must also take note of a more subtle change as the US is moving its strategic focus to and deploying more troops in the Indo-Pacific – its cyber warfare is also re-pivoted to the region. Here are two obvious trends – the shift to the Asia Pacific and the concentration on cyber warfare.

Moreover, as cyber infrastructure concerns national security and stability and smooth social operation in the information age, cyber warfare and cyberattacks will be more destructive. Ever since the US used Stuxnet to paralyze the centrifugal machines of Iran’s more than 1,000 nuclear facilities in 2010, the cyber bullies have been ready to leverage their tech advantages to launch cyberattacks. In 2013, the Snowden incident exposed America’s true color of putting everyone – from ordinary netizens to state leaders of allies – under indiscriminate surveillance.

Nowadays, the invisible cyber offensives and defensives have become so heated and complicated that key cyber infrastructure has long been a strategic fortress carefully defended by all countries. The Biden administration has just released the National Security Strategy labeling China as the biggest geopolitical challenge to the US, and now it is focusing on cyber warfare and trying to expand NATO to Asia. Against such a background, China must enhance our overall capability of cyber defense, create a realistic environment for cyber offensives and defensives, and be more prepared for real combat – there is a lot we must do.

(The author is deputy director of the Counterterrorism and Cybersecurity Committee of China Society of Police Law.)

Editor's note: Originally published on huanqiu.com, this article is translated from Chinese into English and edited by the China Military Online. The information and opinions in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of eng.chinamil.com.cn.