North Korea Denies Role in Sony Hack, Proposes US-North Korean Investigation

The government of North Korea has refuted the Federal Bureau of Investigation's finding that North Korea was behind the devastating hack of Sony Pictures Entertainment and has a proposed a joint US-North Korean investigation to determine who was responsible.

Reuters reports that a member of the North Korean Foreign Ministry denied any role of North Korea in the attacks. The official also called the allegations slander and asked that both governments set up a joint task force to evaluate the evidence.

In blaming North Korea, the FBI said that coding and techniques used in the Sony attack were identical or similar to other attacks that have been confirmed to be the work of North Korean hackers.

The attack on Sony has had a wide range of consequences for the company, resulting in financial losses and damaged relations with its stars. A number of movies slated for future release were posted online, costing the company hundreds of millions of dollars.

The studio also had to cancel the release of "The Interview" because of terroristic threats made against the company and its employees by the hackers. The cancellation also occurred because large movie chains like AMC and Regal refused to show the film.  

President Obama disapproved of this course of actions. In his end of year press conference Dec. 19, he said, "Sony is a corporation, it suffered significant damage, there were threats against its employees, I am sympathetic to the concerns that they faced, having said all that, yes, I think they made a mistake."

The studio's relationship with stars like Angelina Jolie, Leonardo DiCaprio and others were strained when private emails critical of their behavior were made public and widely disseminated by the media.

It is unlikely that North Korea and the US will actually investigate the matter together, as they have extremely poor relations with each other and do not even host each other's embassies.