iStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — North Korea fired back at the U.S. Sunday after President Obama last week signed an executive order imposing new sanctions on North Korea following last month’s cyber-attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment.
The order authorizes the Treasury Department to shutdown access to the U.S. financial system, prohibiting transactions and freezing assets for specific officials and entities of the DPRK (North Korea’s official name) and anyone who supports them.
Obama accused North Korea of “destructive, coercive cyber-related actions during November and December,” calling them a “continuing threat to the national security, foreign policy and economy of the United States.”
North Korea’s Foreign Ministry claimed that its government had nothing to do with December’s Sony hack, which was allegedly in retaliation for the movie, The Interview, that depicted the assassination of DPRK leader Kim Jong-un.
In fiery language typical of North Korea, a ministry spokesman maintained that the sanctions “would only harden its will and resolution to defend the sovereignty of the country.”
Just the same, the Obama administration has identified more than a dozen targets of the sanctions — three North Korean agencies and ten individuals — including the country’s primary intelligence agency that the administration believes runs their “major cyber operations.”
Notably, several of the individuals are identified as working in Russia, China, Syria and Namibia, making them potentially difficult to hit.
“The order is not targeted at the people of North Korea, but rather is aimed at the Government of North Korea and its activities that threaten the United States and others,” Obama wrote in a letter to House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, notifying them of the action.
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