North Korea Calls Sony Pictures Hack 'Righteous Deed of Supporters and Sympathizers'

By Kamal Nayan - 07 Dec '14 23:30PM

North Korea said the country is not responsible for the Sony Pictures hack but acknowledged that it "might be a righteous deed of the supporters and sympathizers."

Involvement of North Korea is suspected in the attack because of an upcoming Sony film which is about an assassination attempt of Kim Jong-un.

Previously, statements regarding the Sony Pictures hack has come from two individual diplomats, one who denied the hack and another who did not deny the hack.

An article published by news agency KCNA accused South Korea of "floating the false rumor that the North was involved in the hacking," and warned the U.S. that "there are a great number of supporters and sympathizers with [North Korea] all over the world."

North Korea takes outside criticism or mockery of its leader as an attack on its sovereignty.

"We do not know where in America the Sony Pictures is situated and for what wrongdoings it became the target of the attack, nor (do) we feel the need to know about it," the statement published in the state media added. "But what we clearly know is that the Sony Pictures is the very one which was going to produce a film abetting a terrorist act while hurting the dignity of the supreme leadership of" North Korea.

Some cybersecurity experts have found similarities between the code used in the hack of Sony Pictures Entertainment and attacks blamed on North Korea that targeted South Korean companies and government agencies in 2013.

The hack exposed the personal data of several Hollywood stars and many current and former Sony Pictures employees online. Sony employees also received threatening emails after hack.