In a rather belated response to North Korea’s “destructive and coercive” cyber-attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment, the United States has slapped a new set of sanctions on the reclusive nation, targeting its Government and top officials.
A fortnight ago, just before heading off to Hawaii on his annual vacation, President Barack Obama had vowed a “proportional” response after the FBI concluded that North Korea was behind the attack that rendered thousands of Sony’s computers inoperable and disrupted the company’s business operations.
Even as Pyongyang continued to deny any involvement in the hacking, but termed it “a righteous deed” all the same, Obama signed an executive order on Friday, authorising the Department of Treasury that has since designated three North Korean entities and 10 high-ranking officials. The White House described the designation as “the first aspect of our response” for North Korea’s “ongoing provocative, destabilising, and repressive actions and policies, particularly its destructive and coercive cyber-attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment”.
“We take seriously North Korea’s attack that aimed to create destructive financial effects on a US company and to threaten artists and other individuals with the goal of restricting their right to free expression,” said a White House statement.
The US action fall short of the demand by some lawmakers to redesignate North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism. The Department of Treasury said the action “escalates financial pressure on the Government of North Korea, including its agencies, instrumentalities, and controlled entities, by authorising targeted sanctions that would deny designated persons access to the US financial system and prohibit US persons from engaging in transactions or dealings with it”.
Treasury Secretary Jack lew said the steps “underscore that we will employ a broad set of tools to defend US businesses and citizens, and to respond to attempts to undermine our values or threaten the national security of the United States”. The Obama administration expects the steps to further isolate key North Korean entities and disrupt the activities of close to a dozen critical operatives in that country. The designated entities proceeded include the Reconnaissance General Bureau, the country’s main intelligence agency. The other two are the Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation, and the Korea Tangun Trading Corporation. “We will continue to use this broad and powerful tool to expose the activities of North Korean Government officials and entities,” a Treasury statement said.