Dec. 22--REPORTING FROM BEIJING -- North Korea's defense department asserted Sunday that the U.S. government was "deeply involved" in the making of the Sony Pictures comedy "The Interview" and threatened to "blow up" the White House, the Pentagon and other U.S. targets if Washington launched an assault to retaliate for the cyberattack on the studio.
The FBI last week said North Korea was behind the hacking of the studio, which led to the release of corporate emails and leaks of full-length films, scripts and other sensitive material. The cyberattack prompted the company to cancel the theatrical release of "The Interview," which centers on a plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
U.S. authorities said the hacking bore strong similarities to a North Korean attack on South Korean banks and other facilities in 2013.
In its statement Sunday, the North Korean National Defense Commission denied having launched cyberattacks on South Korea and again denied culpability for the Sony hacking, saying it was unaware of the hackers' place of residence.
But the commission praised the Sony hackers' "righteous deed," saying the film was an incitement to terrorism and adding that the studio got into "serious trouble and paid a due price."
President Obama has said the U.S. would respond to the attack, but has not specified how. North Korea on Sunday warned against that, saying the country had already launched a "counteraction."
"Nothing is more serious miscalculation than guessing that just a single movie production company is the target of this counteraction," North Korea said. "Our target is all the citadels of the U.S. imperialists who earned the bitterest grudge of all Koreans."
"The army and people of [North Korea] are fully ready to stand in confrontation with the U.S. in all war spaces, including cyberwarfare space, to blow up those citadels," the statement added. "Our toughest counteraction will be boldly taken against the White House, the Pentagon and the whole U.S. mainland, the cesspool of terrorism, by far surpassing the 'symmetric counteraction' declared by Obama."
The bellicose statement from the government in Pyongyang came a day after the North proposed a "joint investigation" with the U.S. into the source of the cyberattack.
