North Korea Not Happy About U.S. Sanctions Over Sony Cyberattack

North Korean officials have fired back at U.S. authorities after President Obama enforced new sanctions in retaliation for the country’s cyberattack against Sony Pictures Entertainment.

President Obama threatened to take action over last year’s hack attack, which resulted in the leak of private emails, celebrity details and unreleased movies, in his end-of-year address last month after FBI agents pinpointed North Korea as the source of the invasion of privacy, and on Friday, he followed through by signing an executive order authorizing the sanctions, which will affect a North Korean government intelligence agency and an arms dealer.

Those sanctioned are barred from using the U.S. financial system, and Americans are prohibited from doing business with them.

Obama’s actions have not sat well with defiant Korean government leaders, who have blasted the new limitations via the state-run Central News Agency.

The message reads: “The persistent and unilateral action taken by the White House to slap ‘sanctions’ against the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) patently proves that it is still not away from inveterate repugnancy and hostility toward the DPRK.”

The notice continues, “The policy persistently pursued by the U.S. to stifle the DPRK, groundlessly stirring up bad blood toward it, would only harden its will and resolution to defend the sovereignty of the country.”

North Korean representatives have denied any involvement in the hacking of Sony Pictures’ databases at the end of November, when cyber criminals threatened to leak further information and files unless studio bosses canceled the Christmas Day release of Seth Rogen and James Franco comedy The Interview, about a fictional assassination attempt on North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

The Interview was initially pulled from theatrical release, before Sony executives decided to make it available in select theatres and for streaming online.

You can read more about the entire situation here: Sony Leak.

Photo Credit: Sony Pictures