South Korea will launch a cyber warfare center under the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) later this year to protect the military network from rising hacking attempts by North Korea, the JCS said Tuesday.

In a report to the parliament, the JCS said it has updated its contingency plan to classify North Korea's cyber threat as a "non-military provocation" and is recruiting members for its own team tasked with preventing cyber attacks to operate the center at the start of next year.