DPRK blames US for Internet disruption

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea blamed Washington on Saturday for Internet outages as people in Pyongyang once again found that Web and 3G access was paralyzed amid bickering between the United States and the Asian country over an earlier cyber attack on Sony Pictures.

The DPRK's National Defense Commission, chaired by top leader Kim Jong-un, said US President Barack Obama was responsible for Sony's belated decision to release the action comedy The Interview, which depicts a fictional plot to assassinate Kim.

Sony canceled the release of the film when large cinema chains refused to screen it following threats of violence from hackers, but then put it out on limited release after Obama said Sony was caving in to pressure from the DPRK Obama promised retaliation against the DPRK, but did not specify what form it would take.

The DPRK's main Internet sites suffered intermittent disruptions this week, including a complete outage of nearly nine hours, before links were largely restored on Tuesday.

But its Internet and 3G mobile networks were paralyzed again on Saturday evening, Xinhua News Agency reported, and the DPRK government blamed the US for systemic instability in the country's networks.

Dyn Research, a US firm that monitors telecommunications infrastructure, said on Saturday the DPRK's Internet access had been restored after a national outage that lasted more than five hours.

In its statement on Saturday, the DPRK again rejected an accusation by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation that it was behind the cyberattack on Sony Pictures.

The National Defense Commission also dismissed US denials of involvement in the DPRK's Internet outages.

"The United States, with its large physical size and oblivious to the shame of playing hide and seek as children with runny noses would, has begun disrupting the Internet operations of the main media outlets of our republic," it said.

Reuters - Xinhua

(China Daily 12/29/2014 page11)