Applying the term Rogue State is probably only an excuse to attack in most cases, but it really applies to DRK.

The chicken or the egg, which came first?

If i were to guess, I’d say North Korea doesn’t engage with more standard economic activities because the entire western world refuses to do business with them. So they resort to illegal activities instead.

Not that this excuses much, but countries still need to survive somehow. Cuba is a country that doesn’t do any of the hacking that NK does, but that doesn’t save them from being mercilessly cut off from the world economy either. And NK knows this.

Also, I’m not a north Korean bot and I resent that the discourse around this topic has become so polluted that I have to preface by saying this.