N. Korea denies Sony hack, wants probe
“Serious consequences” for U.S. if proposed cyber investigation turned down
TOKYO— Warning of “serious consequences” if the United States retaliates against it, North Korea on Saturday insisted that it was not behind a damaging cyber attack on Sony Pictures and offered to prove its innocence by proposing a joint investigation with Washington to identify the hackers.
The message, attributed to an unnamed Foreign Ministry spokesman, and carried by North Korea’s state-run news service, appears to be the secretive regime’s response to U.S. President Barack Obama’s statement the day before that the United States would retaliate for the hacking, which has shaken one of Hollywood’s largest studios. U.S. officials said the hackers’ methods and other clues led them to conclude that North Korea was behind the attack, which resulted in the posting online of Sony’s confidential emails and unreleased movies.
The cyber attack and emailed threats of terrorist attacks against movie theatres prompted Sony to cancel the Christmas release of The Interview, a comedy about the assassination of the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un. North Korea has previously denied responsibility for the hacking, although it called the attacks a “righteous deed” by its “supporters and sympathizers.”
On Saturday, North Korea described the U.S. claims that it was behind the attacks as slander. It also warned of serious consequences if the United States rejects its offer of a joint investigation, said the statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency, according to The Associated Press.
It quoted the unidentified spokesman as saying that any joint inquiry would prove that North Korea was not behind the cyber attack.
“The U.S. should bear in mind that it will face serious consequences in case it rejects our proposal for joint investigation and presses for what it called countermeasures,” the spokesman said in the statement, The Associated Press reported.
“We have a way to prove that we have nothing to do with the case without resorting to torture, as what the CIA does,” the statement said.
It is unlikely that the Obama administration will take the offer from North Korea seriously. While some computer experts still express doubts whether North Korea was actually behind the attack, U.S. officials said it was similar to what was believed to be a North Korean cyber attack last year on South Korean banks and broadcasters. One key similarity was the fact that the hackers erased data from the computers, something many cyber thieves do not do.
In a related development Saturday, the Republican Party called on supporters to buy a ticket to The Interview if theatre owners reverse their decision not to show the film amid threats of retaliation for its comedic take on assassinating North Korea’s leader.
Republican Party chairman Reince Priebus says in a letter to theatrechain executives that he’s concerned that a foreign regime would be allowed to dictate the movies Americans can and cannot watch.
Noting that Hollywood and the Republican Party have had their differences, Priebus says the situation with The Interview is about freedom and free enterprise. Priebus says he will ask Republican supporters to buy tickets “to show North Korea we cannot be bullied into giving up our freedom,” and suggests part of the proceeds go to military charities.