Sony to North Korea: We will release the interview

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Written by Linda Hohnholz

From North Korea, official government voices demand an independent investigation; from Hollywood, Sony is looking to release its controversial movie “The Interview” in “a different way.”

From North Korea, official government voices demand an independent investigation; from Hollywood, Sony is looking to release its controversial movie “The Interview” in “a different way.”

North Korea called yesterday for a joint investigation with the US into a crippling cyber attack on Sony Pictures, denouncing Washingtonโ€™s โ€œslanderingโ€ after US President Barack Obama warned Pyongyang of retaliation.

Sony Pictures says it is looking at different ways to release The Interview after scrapping its opening following a cyber-attack blamed on North Korea.

It said it had only cancelled the film’s Christmas Day release after cinemas pulled out.

Sony said it was considering releasing it “on a different platform”. US President Barack Obama called the cancellation “a mistake”.

U.S. officials blame North Korea for the hacking, citing the tools used in the Sony attack and previous hacks linked to the North, and have vowed a response. The break-in resulted in the disclosure of tens of thousands of confidential Sony emails and business files, and escalated to terrorist threats that caused Sony to cancel the Christmas Day release of the movie “The Interview.” The comedy is about a plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un.

โ€œAs the United States is spreading groundless allegations and slandering us, we propose a joint investigation with it into this incident,โ€ a foreign ministry spokesman in Pyongyang said.

โ€œWithout 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,โ€ the spokesman was quoted as saying by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Pyongyang has repeatedly denied the secretive state was behind the hacking, which led to the release of a trove of embarrassing e-mails, scripts and other internal communications, including information about salaries and employee health records.

On Saturday, an unidentified Foreign Ministry spokesman in Pyongyang said North Korea knows how to prove it’s not responsible for the hacking, saying Washington is slandering Pyongyang by spreading unfounded rumors.

Addressing reporters after the FBI said Pyongyang was to blame, Obama said Washington would never bow to โ€œsome dictatorโ€.

While the US president said he was sympathetic to Sonyโ€™s plight, he also said the movie giant had โ€œmade a mistakeโ€ in canceling the picture release. Sony defended its decision, made after anonymous hackers invoked the 9/11 attacks in threatening cinemas screening the film, which prompted theatre chains to say they would not risk showing it.

North Korea said insults against โ€œour highest authorityโ€ would not be tolerated, but it rebuffed the notion of cinema attacks. โ€œBut in case we have to retaliate, we would not carry out terrorist attacks on innocent viewers at movie theatres but stage frontal attacks on those who are responsible for the hostile activities against the DPRK (North Korea) and their headquarters,โ€ the spokesman said.

Just before Obama took the podium, the Federal Bureau of Investigation explained how it had concluded that North Korea was to blame. The attackers used malware to break into the studio and render thousands of Sony Pictures computers inoperable, forcing the company to take its entire network offline, the FBI said.

Koh Yu-hwan, a professor at Seoul’s Dongguk University, called the North’s proposal a “typical” tactic the country has taken in similar disputes with rival countries. In 2010, North Korea proposed a joint investigation after a South Korea-led international team concluded that the North was behind a torpedo attack that killed 46 South Korean sailors, though Pyongyang denied its involvement. South Korea rejected the North’s offer for the joint probe.

There was โ€œno evidenceโ€ that North Korea had acted in concert with another country, Obama said, after reports that Chinaโ€”Pyongyangโ€™s only allyโ€”had possibly provided assistance.

Chinese state newspaper the Global Times lashed out at โ€œThe Interviewโ€ on Saturday as โ€œsenseless cultural arroganceโ€ in an editorial. South Korea, meanwhile, said it noted โ€œthe similaritiesโ€ between the attack and the onslaught on its soil last year.

The Northโ€™s top military body, the National Defense Commission, slammed Sony for โ€œabetting a terrorist act while hurting the dignity of the supreme leadershipโ€, according to KCNA.

Hollywood filmmakers urged US authorities to do more to protect them against future cyber attacks, as experts estimated the attack could cost Sony Pictures hundreds of millions of dollars.

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Avatar of Linda Hohnholz

Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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