Faculty Project: Database of North Korean Hacker Activities
Faculty: Prof. John Park, Director of the Korea Project and Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center
Funded by the Korea Institute at Harvard University, I was a cohort member of the Summer Research Program led by Dr. John Park, director of the Korea Project at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. My research paper
investigated the implications for the North Korean government adjusting for a post-Kim future through changes in its cybersecurity departments. In particular, I developed a visualization of the current state of the North Korean government’s organizational structure as analysts know it today in current research, and incorporated what scholars know about North Korean cybersecurity
actors into the visualization to better map what connections can be drawn, what communication lines could be altered, and why the changes in the government system design were made. To begin the project, Dr. Park prepared a list of literature to review for setting
foundational knowledge on the subject of my research project. For the major part of the summer, I was developing a tailored research question that would guide my research work during SRP. I discussed the trends and puzzles I identified in my literature review, which helped form the basis of my tailored research question. Then I generated some preliminary findings, identified core actors, and assessed the major implications related to my research question and converted my preliminary findings into a short report format, which aligned with SRP’s priority of encouraging summer researchers to become published. Throughout the summer, Dr. Park also held group workshops to get to know the other researchers, practice presenting our work and answering questions, and learning about other
projects and areas of study within the Korea Project. In addition, speaker events with former National Security Agency analyst Priscilla Moriuchi, former CIA Korea Mission Center head Andrew Kim, and former National Intelligence Officer Markus Garlauskas enriched the program further by sharing incredible career insights with the summer researchers.