The U.S. government is now calling on North Korea to compensate Sony Pictures for the damages it caused in its cyberattack and urging the nation to exercise restraint in issuing threats.
“The government of North Korea has a long history of denying responsibility for this destructive and provocative actions, and if they want to help here, they can admit their culpability and compensate Sony for the damage they caused,” State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf told reporters at a briefing Monday.
Over the weekend, North Korea denied any involvement in the cyberattack on Sony Pictures and against theaters set to show the movie “The Interview,” a screwball comedy about two U.S. reporters hired to assassinate Kim Jong Un. The North Korean government also warned that any U.S. punishment would lead to damage “thousands of times greater,” with targets including the White House and Pentagon.
Hackers including the “‘Guardians of Peace” group that forced Sony to pull a comedy ‘‘are sharpening bayonets not only in the U.S. mainland but in all other parts of the world,” the Kim-led National Defense Commission said in a statement published Sunday by the official Korean Central News Agency. In the same statement, the North Korean government denied knowing who the hackers are.
While the U.S. government is aware of the reports of threats from North Korea on U.S. institutions and entities, Harf said it has “no specific credible threat information that lends credence to the reports.”
“Law enforcement and Homeland Security officials are continuing to monitor the situation and will closely follow any leads they may get,” Harf said. “We do urge North Korea to exercise restraint — to refrain from further threatening actions at this time.”
President Obama during a Friday news conference fingered North Korea as responsible for the hack and the threats against Sony and movie theaters and said the U.S. response will be “proportionate.”
Harf said the U.S. government remains confident that North Korea is responsible for the “destructive attack” and is considering a range of options in response.
“We’re not going to discuss publicly the response options … except to say that as we implement our responses, some may be seen, some may not be seen,” she said.
