BEIJING: North Korea’s defence department asserted Sunday that the US government was “deeply involved” in the making of the Sony Pictures comedy ‘The Interview’ and threatened to “blow up” the White House, the Pentagon and other US targets if Washington launched an assault to retaliate for the cyberattack on the studio.
The FBI last week said North Korea was behind the hacking of the studio, which led to the release of corporate emails and leaks of full-length films, scripts and other sensitive material. The cyberattack prompted the company to cancel the theatrical release of ‘The Interview’,’ which centres on a plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
US authorities said the hacking bore strong similarities to a North Korean attack on South Korean banks and other facilities in 2013.
In its statement Sunday, the North Korean National Defence Commission denied having launched cyberattacks on South Korea and again denied culpability for the Sony hacking.
But the commission praised the Sony hackers’ “righteous deed,” saying the film was an incitement to terrorism and adding that the studio got into “serious trouble and paid a due price.”
President Barack Obama has said the US would respond to the attack, but has not specified how. North Korea on Sunday warned that it had already launched a “counteraction.”
“The army and people of [North Korea] are fully ready to stand in confrontation with the US in all war spaces, including cyberwarfare space,” the statement added. “Our toughest counteraction will be boldly taken against the White House, the Pentagon and the whole US mainland, the cesspool of terrorism, by far surpassing the ‘symmetric counteraction’ declared by Obama.”
The bellicose statement came a day after North Korea proposed a “joint investigation” with the United States into the source of the cyberattack.
