North Korea has denied its involvement in the Sony hack and offered its services to the U.S. for helping find the true attacker. But in true Pyongyang fashion, that offer comes along with a thinly veiled threat.
The cyberattack on Sony was sparked by the upcoming film “The Interview,” which focuses on a C.I.A. plot to assassinate North Korea’s dear leader Kim Jong Un. In June, when the trailer for the film was released and Pyongyang said its release would be “an act of war.” Other threats have followed, promising attacks on movie theaters showing the film. Sony has since cancelled the film’s Christmas Day release.
But an unidentified Foreign Ministry spokesman told Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency that his country can prove it had nothing to do with the cyberattack against Sony, NPR reported, and that the U.S. must accept the country’s offer for a joint probe of the security breach.
“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 while finding fault with” North Korea, the spokesman said in a statement carried by Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency.
U.S. officials stand by their confirmation of North Korea’s involvement in this attack.
“As the FBI made clear, we are confident the North Korean government is responsible for this destructive attack. We stand by this conclusion,” National Security Council spokesman Mark Stroh said Saturday. “The Government of North Korea has a long history of denying responsibility for destructive and provocative actions.”
“If the North Korean government wants to help, they can admit their culpability and compensate Sony for the damages this attack caused,” he continued.
The U.S. government has reportedly asked China to help block North Korea’s ability to launch cyberattacks, the New York Times reported.
Administration officials told the NYT this cooperation with China was a part of the “proportional response” President Barack Obama promised on Friday.
“What we are looking for is a blocking action, something that would cripple their efforts to carry out attacks,” an official told the Times.
China’s cooperation would be essential to any effort to crack down on North Korea’s cyber-warfare operations because North Korea’s telecommunications run through Chinese-operated networks. It is unclear if Chinese officials will be willing to help at this time.
