Cambodia says Thailand attempting to ‘tarnish’ it with claims it engaged North Korean hackers

PHNOM PENH – Cambodia accused Thailand on July 7 of a “malicious attempt” to smear its reputation with accusations it has launched cyber attacks on the neighbouring nation, as a diplomatic feud festers.

The South-east Asian neighbours have been at loggerheads since

a Cambodian soldier was killed in late May

as troops exchanged fire in a disputed border region.

Numerous crossings have been closed as Cambodia banned some Thai products, and

Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra was suspended last week

pending an ethics probe into her conduct during the spat.

Cambodia’s communications ministry said Thai posts in Thailand were alleging “Cambodia engaged North Korean hackers to launch attacks against a few Thai institutions.”

“The Royal Government of Cambodia has no connection whatsoever with North Korean hacker groups,” the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications (MPTC) said in a statement.

“The MPTC considers this allegation to be a malicious attempt by Thailand to tarnish Cambodia’s reputation on the international stage”.

It also issued a counter-claim that a Thai hacker group known as “BlackEye-Thai” attacked “nearly all of the Cambodian government’s online systems” over the past two weeks, but said their attempts were “thwarted”.

Ms Paetongtarn was suspended after the Thai Constitutional Court found there was “sufficient cause to suspect” she breached ministerial ethics as she tried to quash the border feud.

In a call with Cambodian ex-leader Hun Sen, she called him “uncle” and referred to a Thai military commander as her “opponent”.

A recording of the call, leaked from the Cambodian side,

sparked allegations she had kowtowed to Phnom Penh

and undermined the military.

But the feud has continued since Ms Paetongtarn’s suspension.

As a result of

a Cabinet reshuffle she organised

just hours before being suspended, she is now Thailand’s serving culture minister.

In one of her first acts in that office on July 4, she halted the return of 20 ancient Khmer artefacts to Cambodia, citing funding issues, despite pledging in April to hand them over.

The border row between the countries dates back to the drawing of their 800km frontier in the early 20th century, during the French occupation of Indochina.

Violence sparked by the dispute has led to at least 28 deaths in the region since 2008, but the issue had died down in recent years until the flare-up in May. AFP