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N.Korea: Sony scandal 'nothing to do with us'

December 20, 2014

North Korea has proposed a joint investigation with the US into the Sony Pictures hacking scandal. The release of a film about a plot to kill North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was cancelled following a cyber attack.

https://p.dw.com/p/1E7xP
Sony sagt The Interview ab
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Justin Lane

News agencies reported on Saturday that North Korea said it could prove it had nothing to do with the Sony hacking case.

"As the United States is spreading groundless allegations and slandering us, we propose a joint investigation with it into this incident", North Korea's foreign ministry said.

"Without resorting to such tortures as were used by the US CIA, we have means to prove that this incident has nothing to do with us," Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) quoted a spokesman as saying.

The Reuters news agency also reported that according to KCNA, the North's foreign ministry said there would be "grave consequences" if Washington refused to agree to the joint probe and continued to accuse Pyongyang.

Release of "The Interview" shelved

Sony was forced to cancel the Christmas Day release of "The Interview," which depicts a CIA plot to kill North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, after anonymous hackers threatened cinemas set to screen the film.

US President Barack Obama said on Friday that Sony had "made a mistake" in shelving the satirical picture and pledged the US would respond "in a place and manner and time that we choose". The FBI blamed the attack on Pyonyang's communist government.

Film Still - The Interview
Scene from "The Interview", which US cinemas decided not to screen over the hacking scandalImage: picture alliance/ZUMAPRESS.com

On Saturday, South Korea and Japan vowed to work closely with Washington to combat cyber crime.

Seoul had earlier blamed Pyongyang for the hacking scandal that saw Sony Pictures pull the film from release.

The South said it would share information with the US "related to the cyber attack on Sony," which it said bore all the hallmarks of an onslaught on its own banks and media agencies by the North last year.

"We express deep regret and condemn such North Korean activities as they seriously undermine the openness and security of cyber space and they constitute a crime that caused property losses," South Korea's foreign ministry said in a statement.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told the AFP news agency that "the Japanese government is closely communicating with the United States and supporting its approach on this issue," without direct reference to North Korea.

lw/pfd (AFP, Reuters)