Group with close ties to Trump presumed to have been attacked by Chinese hackers
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(WASHINGTON) — America First Policy Institute, a think tank aligned with former President Donald Trump, is presumed by federal authorities to have been attacked by Chinese hackers, sources familiar with the matter have told ABC News.
AFPI’s Chief Communications Officer Marc Lotter told ABC News in a statement that “it is not surprising” that “hostile foreign actors” would target AFPI, noting it’s a leading Trump-aligned policy group.
“As the leading policy group in the America First movement, it is not surprising that hostile foreign actors would attempt to infiltrate our IT,” Lotter wrote. “The tactics, techniques, and procedures of the threat actor are similar to that of nation-state sponsored activities we have seen, allowing us to remediate and respond quickly.”
“Like the America First movement itself, AFPI will not creep at the speed of government but act at the speed of business with the world’s leading cyber experts to even further enhance our already robust security,” he continued.
Politico first reported the alleged hack.
AFPI is a policy advisory think tank group that houses hundreds of former Trump administration officials, including AFPI board chairwoman Linda McMahon, who has been named co-chair of the Trump Transition Team.
The reports of APFI’s being targeted by foreign actors come on the heels of alleged Iranian hacking of the Trump campaign.
The Justice Department unsealed an indictment last month that charged three Iranians over their alleged involvement in the hack of emails from former President Donald Trump’s campaign.
The indictment charged the men with a series of crimes ranging from computer hacking charges, material support to a foreign terrorist organization, identity theft and aiding and abetting.
Prosecutors say the three men were all employed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and engaged in a “wide-ranging hacking campaign” that used spear-phishing and other digital hacking techniques to compromise targets that included current and former U.S. government officials, members of the media, NGOs and “individuals associated with U.S. political campaigns.”
(LONDON) — Russian investigators detained a 29-year-old citizen of Uzbekistan in connection with Tuesday’s assassination of a general in Moscow, an attack in a residential neighborhood for which Ukraine claimed credit.
Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov was killed by an explosive device that appears to have been hidden in a parked scooter and set off by remote control, Russian state-affiliated media TASS reported. The explosion also killed an aide accompanying him.
Kirillov was the head of Russia’s radiation, chemical and biological protection troops. Sources told ABC News that the Security Service of Ukraine was behind the killing. Kirillov is the most senior Russian military official assassinated by Ukraine.
The suspect, whose name has not been released, had been recruited by Ukrainian intelligence officers, Russian police said as they announced the arrest.
“On their instructions, he arrived in Moscow and received an improvised explosive device,” police said. “He placed it on an electric scooter, which he parked at the entrance of the apartment building where Igor Kirillov lived.”
The suspect had used a carshare to rent a car and installed a video camera in the vehicle, which was then parked near where the blast went off, police said.
“The footage from this camera was broadcast online to the organizers of the terrorist attack in the city of Dnipro,” Russia’s Investigative Committee said. “After a video signal was received about the exit of the servicemen from the entrance, the explosive device was remotely activated by them.”
Russia’s internal intelligence agency, the Federal Security Service, or FSB, released a video of a man who they said was the suspect. In the footage, which aired on Russian state TV, the man appears to confess to the killing, saying he had been hired by Ukraine, according to the FSB.
Russia claimed the suspect had been offered payment of $100,000, along with an agreement that he would be given a European passport.
President Vladimir Putin offered condolences on Wednesday for those who were killed, according to the Kremlin. Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the country’s law enforcement and intelligence services had been “working effectively.”
“It is once again confirmed that the Kyiv regime does not disdain terrorist methods of work,” Peskov said. “We clearly understand who our enemy is, what he is capable of, and this is once again proven by our actions during the special military operation.”
ABC News’ Joseph Simonetti, Helena Skinner, David Brennan and Patrick Reevell contributed to this report.
(SEOUL) — A North Korean defector living in South Korea is under arrest for allegedly stealing a bus and attempting to drive it across the border into North Korea last week, police said.
The man, who is in his 30s, escaped North Korea and settled in 2011 in Seoul, according to South Korea’s Gyeonggi Bukbu Provincial Police. Reportedly, he told police that he wanted to return to North Korea because life was difficult in the South and he missed his family back in the North.
He was not the first North Korean defector who has attempted to return home. South Korea’s Unification Ministry said 31 defectors re-entered the North from 2012 to 2022, an average of about three each year. The ministry’s report revealed that 71% of the defectors who reentered North Korea resided in the South for less than five years.
“The few North Korean defectors who wish to reenter North Korea seem to have failed to adapt to the very different environment in the South,” Dr. Shin Dae-jin, principal researcher at the Sungkyunkwan University Center for Good Democracy, told ABC News. “Also there are elderly defectors who wish to return because they miss their hometown so dearly.”
The man allegedly tried to cross the Tongil Bridge in Paju, which leads to the fortified inter-Korean border, ignoring the warnings of soldiers. He was eventually stopped by military forces guarding the bridge and handed over to police. The police issued an arrest warrant last Friday after an investigation on charges of violating the National Security Act and the Military Base Protection Act, vehicle theft and driving without a license.
Although its society is generally democratic and capitalistic, South Korea welcomes North Korean defectors by providing basic education at the adaptation center for months before letting them walk out freely into society. But the reality of adapting to a new way of life isn’t always easy for the defectors.
According to North Korean Refugees Foundation research last year, North Korean defectors earn approximately $460 less in monthly income than others in South Korea. Research center Seoul Institute’s report revealed last year that 37.7% of North Korean defectors living in Seoul are welfare recipients, which means their income does not meet the minimum cost of living.
“North Korean defectors often face economic and psychological difficulties, unable to find employment after receiving one-time subsidies provided by the government,” Lawmaker Han Jeoung-ae who takes part in the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee, told ABC News. “The government must provide more practical support for employment and housing, and psychological and social support if needed.”
Experts pointed out that only a handful of defectors attempt to reenter North Korea.
“There are misfits in any society; the defectors who wish to return are like immigrants who wonder if their lives left behind could have been better off,” Kwang Baek Lee, who represents a news outlet that targets North Korean people, told ABC News.
But many defectors who risked their lives to cross the fortified border find their new lives a second chance.
“I am grateful for the life I have in South Korea, that I get paid for the work I have done, the choices I have at the market, that I can have three meals a day and when I return home from work I get to watch the television,” Hyukpil Lim, a defector in his 60s who makes a living by cleaning apartment garbage grounds, told ABC News.
According to South Korea’s Unification Ministry, 34,183 North Korean escapees took root in South Korea until June this year. More than 1,000 people escaped and settled down before 2020, but COVID-19 made the escape route even more difficult, resulting in a dramatic decrease to 63 people in 2021, 67 in 2022 and 196 in 2023.
Meanwhile the budget for supporting North Korean defectors this year decreased by $3.3 million compared to last year.
(LONDON) — The South Korean State Council passed a resolution to officially lift martial law, according to the South Korean Prime Minister’s office.
Shortly before the vote, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said troops have been withdrawn, hours after he declared an “emergency martial law.”
Yoon had declared martial law in a televised speech late Tuesday, the Yonhap news agency reported. The president said the measure was necessary due to the actions of the country’s liberal opposition, the Democratic Party, which he accused of controlling parliament, sympathizing with North Korea and paralyzing the government.
The move sparked protests, and hours after the declaration, the National Assembly voted early Wednesday morning local time demanding that the president lift the martial law order. A majority of parliament — all 190 members who were present, out of the 300-person body — voted to lift the decree — requiring that it then be lifted, under the South Korean constitution.
Following the National Assembly’s vote, Yoon said he withdrew the troops that had been deployed to carry out martial law and “will lift martial law as soon as we have a quorum in the cabinet.” The State Council then convened to vote to officially lift it.
The country’s Democratic Party called on Yoon to resign following what it called the “fundamentally invalid” declaration of martial law. The opposition party said it will begin impeachment proceedings if the president doesn’t resign.
“This is a serious act of rebellion and perfect grounds for impeachment,” a Democratic Party spokesperson said in a statement after martial law was lifted.
Explaining his decision to declare martial law on Tuesday, Yoon accused the opposition-dominated parliament of “paralyzing” judicial affairs and the administration via 22 proposed cases of impeachment issued since the body convened in June.
After withdrawing the troops, he continued to call out the National Assembly, urging parliament to “immediately stop the outrageous behavior that is paralyzing the functioning of the country with impeachments, legislative manipulation and budget manipulation.”
Yoon’s conservative People Power Party has been locked in a fierce budget dispute with the liberal opposition Democratic Party.
“The handling of the national budget also cut all major budgets to have control over the essential functions of the state, the budget that was formed to crack down on drug crimes and maintain public security,” Yoon said Tuesday. “This undermines the essential functions of the state and leaves the public in a drug paradise and public security panic.”
“The National Assembly, which should be the basis of liberal democracy, has become a monster that collapses the liberal democracy system,” he added.
Following the declaration of martial law, the Democratic Party called on its lawmakers to assemble at the National Assembly building in Seoul, Yonhap reported. Party leader Lee Jae-myung said Yoon’s martial law declaration was an “unconstitutional” measure that “goes against the people.”
“President Yoon declared emergency martial law for no reason,” Lee said, as quoted by Yonhap.
Police and soldiers gathered around the National Assembly on Tuesday night after Yoon spoke. Footage from the scene also showed crowds descending on the building, some people making their way inside. Yonhap reported clashes between security personnel and National Assembly staffers as the former tried to enter the building.
Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon — a member of Yoon’s People Power Party — was among those who called for an immediate reversal of the declaration. “As mayor, I will do my best to protect the daily lives of citizens,” he added in a post to Facebook.
President Joe Biden’s administration was not alerted of the declaration beforehand, according to the White House National Security Council.
“We are relieved President Yoon has reversed course on his concerning declaration of martial law and respected the ROK National Assembly’s vote to end it,” a White House National Security Council spokesperson told ABC News in a statement. “Democracy is at the foundation of the U.S.-ROK alliance, and we will continue to monitor the situation.”
Biden told reporters he was “just getting briefed” on the martial law declaration, following a speech in Angola on Tuesday evening local time.
His administration is in contact with the South Korean government, the White House National Security Council said.
The U.S. Embassy in Seoul warned Americans in the country that “the situation remains fluid” in the wake of martial law being lifted.
“U.S. citizens should anticipate potential disruptions,” the Embassy said in a security alert. “When in public, you should pay attention to your surroundings and exercise routine safety precautions.”
Tuesday’s martial law declaration marked the first since the country’s democratization in 1987. Martial law was last declared in 1979 after the assassination of dictator Park Chung Hee.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story was updated to reflect that Yoon had withdrawn troops but martial law had not yet been lifted.
ABC News’ Will Gretsky, Joe Simonetti, Fritz Farrow and Shannon K. Kingston contributed to this report.
