North Korea ups threats against US
North Korea will take “counteraction” against “the White House, the Pentagon and the whole U.S. mainland,” if officials continue to blame the reclusive nation for the cyberattack against Sony Pictures.
“Nothing is more serious miscalculation than guessing that just a single movie production company is the target of this counteraction,” read a report on the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). “Our target is all the citadels of the U.S. imperialists who earned the bitterest grudge of all Koreans.”
{mosads}Pyongyang also reiterated that it was not behind the film studio hack, which exposed troves of sensitive documents and emails and caused Sony to cancel the release of its comedy, “The Interview.”
The FBI has alleged North Korea sponsored the cyber assault as retaliation for the film’s plot depicting the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
The country’s Sunday warning was an elevation of Pyongyang’s bombastic rhetoric against the U.S.
On Saturday, the country vaguely warned of “serious” consequences if the U.S. didn’t partake in a joint investigation into the hack with North Korea.
The White House insisted it would not participate in such an inspection.
“Our toughest counteraction will be boldly taken against the White House, the Pentagon and the whole U.S. mainland, the cesspool of terrorism,” the report said.
Although denying involvement, North Korea has called the hack “a righteous deed” and praised the group taking credit for the attack, which goes by “Guardians of Peace.”
The Guardians of Peace is “sharpening bayonets not only in the U.S. mainland but in all other parts of the world,” Pyongyang said in the report.
The White House has vowed to “respond proportionally” to the incident, which could including placing North Korea on a list of states sponsoring terrorism in addition to economic sanctions.
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