South Korea has become the first Asian member state of NATO's Cooperative Cyber Defense Center of Excellence (CCDCOE), according to the Yonhap news agency.

The agency quoted Seoul's National Intelligence Service (NIS) stating that it plans "to strengthen our cyber response capabilities to a world-class level by increasing the number of our staff sent to the center and expanding the scope of joint training.”

The addition of South Korea to the CCDCOE brings the total number of members to 32, with 27 of them being NATO states known as sponsoring States. Korea and the other four non-US-led bloc countries are contributing participants.

According to the NIS, Seoul sought to join the CCDCOE in 2019 and has since taken part in the center's activities – including the Locked Shields cyber defense wargames – for two years in a row, beginning in 2020.

Seoul's intelligence agency stated that "cyber threats are causing great damage not only to individuals but also to separate nations and also transnationally,” which makes “close international cooperation” highly important.

The CCDCOE, was created in 2008 in reaction to a significant cyberattack on Estonia's governmental networks in 2007, which the country's officials quickly blamed on Russia. Tallinn officials, on the other hand, later admitted that they lacked conclusive evidence to implicate the Kremlin.