Special to WorldTribune.com

By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com

WASHINGTON — Everybody here is talking about cyberspying. The National Security Agency has never had so much publicity. Until Edward Snowden came along, most people had never heard the initials “NSA.”

Now President Obama is getting into the act big-time. In the hours after this newspaper comes out on Friday, he’ll be making a speech in which he addresses the issue. He’s likely to offer assurances, to guarantee the security and freedom of Americans from Big Brother listening in on all their conversations.

One thing is pretty certain, though. Obama is not going to come down hard on the NSA. He’s not going to ban cyber-sleuthing. He’s going to tell Americans, and the rest of the world, that monitoring messages is necessary for national security. Without it, he will argue, you lose a major weapon in the war against bad guys ranging from terrorists to drug cartels to petty crooks.

It’s more than likely that his words will have real impact internationally. Other heads of state will be saying, if Obama thinks it’s okay, how about us? We can be sure the National Intelligence Service in Seoul is doing whatever it can to develop the capacity to eavesdrop on just about everyone. We can be equally certain the North Koreans, while banning access to the Internet for all but the most powerful people, are working hard to hone the techniques that they have already used to throw off communications, mess up bank accounts and slow down bureaucracies in South Korea.

Where does it all stop? Snowden has exposed the doings of the National Security Agency, but how much do we know about what all the world’s intelligence services are up to. The Japanese and the Chinese are among the most advanced in terms of high-tech. How far have they gone in penetrating the systems of one another, of South and North Korea, of the United States and other powers around the world?

Snowden and his fans believe that he performed a tremendous service in letting everyone know about the activities of the NSA. Would he be equally willing to let us know what his Russian hosts are doing? And how concerned is he about the activities of China and North Korea?

In fact, most people are not too interested in finding the answers to these questions. We don’t really believe the NSA has the time to follow all our silly conversations and email exchanges. Surely the NSA’s programs are sophisticated enough to pick up on truly incriminating stuff between heads of state and their lieutenants and intelligence people while ignoring all the other blather.

While howling in rage over North Korea’s cyber-transgressions against South Korea and the U.S., including the Pentagon, we wonder if Pyongyang cyber cops had a key role in nailing the unfortunate Jang Song-Thaek. Surely the North’s powerful security people would have been just as good at going after him as they have been in annoying the country’s enemies.

Like it or not, we’re probably seeing just the beginning of cyber-spying. Remember, a few years ago, no one would have imagined the NSA or any other agency with facilities so powerful as to be able to tune in to any conversation or exchange that suited the fancy of the investigators.

How many years will it be before cyber-espionage is a staple of the pursuit of pilferers and thieves who might have talked about their next hits on the phone? On a truly scary scale, when will cyber-sleuths be able to listen in on conversations among politicos?

Obama’s defense of cyber-spying promises to be like the ones in favor of drone strikes – we have to do it to save lives. We’re sorry about the collateral damage, the killing of innocent people from time to time, goes the argument, but we can’t stop what we’re doing. Sorry about that.

As electronic communications advances almost by the day, it turns into a weapon that all sides can use, misuse and abuse. It figures that the U.S., the pioneer in the Internet and other forms of electronic wizardry, should be ahead of other countries in the potential for piling up the records of everyone.

But where does this expertise eventually lead — and how effective will it be in the hands of dictators eager for ways to insure their own security while suppressing their people? The case of Jang Song-Thaek and his confederates demonstrates the utility of cyber-sleuthing as a weapon for propping up the power of the ruler, insuring his security against enemies from within while attacking enemies abroad.

Columnist Donald Kirk has visited Pyongyang five times and seen the Arirang Games at least three times. He’s at kirkdon@yahoo.com.

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