SEOUL – North Korea on Saturday blasted U.S. President Barack Obama as a “monkey” for inciting cinemas to screen Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc.’s “The Interview,” a madcap comedy about killing the North’s leader, Kim Jong Un, and went on to also threaten “inescapable deadly blows” over the movie’s release.
The isolated dictatorship’s powerful National Defense Commission also accused the U.S. of “disturbing the Internet operation” of North Korean media outlets. The North suffered Internet blackouts earlier in the week, triggering speculation that U.S. authorities may have launched a cyberattack in retaliation for the hacking of Sony Pictures that Washington says was carried out by Pyongyang.
The NDC accused Obama of taking the lead in encouraging U.S. theaters to screen “The Interview” on Christmas Day.
“Obama always goes reckless in words and deeds like a monkey in a tropical forest,” a spokesman for the NDC’s policy department said in a statement published by Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency.
“If the U.S. persists in American-style arrogant, high-handed and gangster-like arbitrary practices despite (North Korea’s) repeated warnings, the U.S. should bear in mind that its failed political affairs will face inescapable deadly blows,” the spokesman said.
The spokesman, while accusing Washington of “beating air after being hit hard by others,” called again for a joint investigation into the hacking of Sony Pictures, a proposal that has already been rejected by the U.S.
“In actuality, the U.S., a big country, started disturbing the Internet operation of major media of the DPRK, not knowing shame like children playing a tag,” he said, using North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
He accused Washington of linking the hacking of Sony Pictures to North Korea “without clear evidence” and repeated Pyongyang’s condemnation of the film, describing it as “a movie for agitating terrorism produced with high-ranking politicians of the U.S. administration involved.”
Sony had initially canceled the movie’s release after major U.S. theater chains said they would not screen it, following threats to moviegoers by the hackers of Sony Pictures.
On its limited-release opening day earlier in the week, the film took in over $1 million dollars, showing in around 300 mostly small independent theaters. It was also released online for rental or purchase.
The movie, which has been panned by critics, has become an unlikely symbol of free speech thanks to the hacker threats that nearly scuppered its release. The low-brow comedy revolving around the fictional assassination of Kim Jong Un played to packed theaters across the U.S, and a file sharing website reported the film had been illegally downloaded more than 750,000 times.
On Thursday, perhaps in retaliation, online services went down for Sony Corp.’s PlayStation and Microsoft Inc.’s Xbox gaming consoles, which had decided to release the film online, following an alleged attack by hackers. Microsoft’s online network for its Xbox gaming console was restored to nearly full service Friday but the PlayStation network remained down.
Earlier in the week, websites of the North’s major state media went dead for hours starting from Monday night. The cause of the outages in the country’s already severely limited Internet access has not been confirmed. The U.S. has refused to say whether it was involved in the shutdown.
North Korea only has about a million computers in its roughly 25 million population, mainly available at educational and state institutions, but most lack any connection to the world wide web. All online content and email in the country are strictly censored or monitored with access to the Internet strictly limited to a handful of top party cadres, propaganda officials and foreign expatriots.
SEOUL – North Korea on Saturday blasted U.S. President Barack Obama as a “monkey” for inciting cinemas to screen Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc.’s “The Interview,” a madcap comedy about killing the North’s leader, Kim Jong Un, and went on to also threaten “inescapable deadly blows” over the movie’s release.
The isolated dictatorship’s powerful National Defense Commission also accused the U.S. of “disturbing the Internet operation” of North Korean media outlets. The North suffered Internet blackouts earlier in the week, triggering speculation that U.S. authorities may have launched a cyberattack in retaliation for the hacking of Sony Pictures that Washington says was carried out by Pyongyang.
The NDC accused Obama of taking the lead in encouraging U.S. theaters to screen “The Interview” on Christmas Day.
“Obama always goes reckless in words and deeds like a monkey in a tropical forest,” a spokesman for the NDC’s policy department said in a statement published by Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency.
“If the U.S. persists in American-style arrogant, high-handed and gangster-like arbitrary practices despite (North Korea’s) repeated warnings, the U.S. should bear in mind that its failed political affairs will face inescapable deadly blows,” the spokesman said.
The spokesman, while accusing Washington of “beating air after being hit hard by others,” called again for a joint investigation into the hacking of Sony Pictures, a proposal that has already been rejected by the U.S.
“In actuality, the U.S., a big country, started disturbing the Internet operation of major media of the DPRK, not knowing shame like children playing a tag,” he said, using North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
He accused Washington of linking the hacking of Sony Pictures to North Korea “without clear evidence” and repeated Pyongyang’s condemnation of the film, describing it as “a movie for agitating terrorism produced with high-ranking politicians of the U.S. administration involved.”
Sony had initially canceled the movie’s release after major U.S. theater chains said they would not screen it, following threats to moviegoers by the hackers of Sony Pictures.
On its limited-release opening day earlier in the week, the film took in over $1 million dollars, showing in around 300 mostly small independent theaters. It was also released online for rental or purchase.
The movie, which has been panned by critics, has become an unlikely symbol of free speech thanks to the hacker threats that nearly scuppered its release. The low-brow comedy revolving around the fictional assassination of Kim Jong Un played to packed theaters across the U.S, and a file sharing website reported the film had been illegally downloaded more than 750,000 times.
On Thursday, perhaps in retaliation, online services went down for Sony Corp.’s PlayStation and Microsoft Inc.’s Xbox gaming consoles, which had decided to release the film online, following an alleged attack by hackers. Microsoft’s online network for its Xbox gaming console was restored to nearly full service Friday but the PlayStation network remained down.
Earlier in the week, websites of the North’s major state media went dead for hours starting from Monday night. The cause of the outages in the country’s already severely limited Internet access has not been confirmed. The U.S. has refused to say whether it was involved in the shutdown.
North Korea only has about a million computers in its roughly 25 million population, mainly available at educational and state institutions, but most lack any connection to the world wide web. All online content and email in the country are strictly censored or monitored with access to the Internet strictly limited to a handful of top party cadres, propaganda officials and foreign expatriots.
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