The White House issued a press release announcing additional sanctions against North Korea in response to the hack of Sony Entertainment, which nearly derailed the release of the movie, The Interview:
Today, the President issued an Executive Order (E.O.) authorizing additional sanctions on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. This E.O. is a response to the Government of North Korea’s ongoing provocative, destabilizing, and repressive actions and policies, particularly its destructive and coercive cyber attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment
The E.O. authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury to impose sanctions on individuals and entities associated with the Government of North Korea. We take seriously North Korea’s attack that aimed to create destructive financial effects on a U.S. company and to threaten artists and other individuals with the goal of restricting their right to free expression.
As the President has said, our response to North Korea’s attack against Sony Pictures Entertainment will be proportional, and will take place at a time and in a manner of our choosing. Today’s actions are the first aspect of our response.
The FBI has maintained that North Korea is responsible for the attacks, despite conflicting opinions from several security experts who remain skeptical of the government’s findings. Some even believe the attack was an inside job.
“We’re standing by our assessment — the FBI, [U.S. government], intelligence community, DHS, private industry — all of us. Cybersecurity firms don’t have access to the same classified information as we do,” a senior administration official told TheWrap on Friday.
The sanctions target three organizations: the Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB), North Korea’s primary intelligence organization, Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation (KOMID), North Korea’s primary arms dealer, and Korea Tangun Trading Corporation, which is “primarily responsible for the procurement of commodities and technologies to support North Korea’s defense research and development programs.”
Furthermore, 10 individual officials of the North Korean government were listed in the executive order. But the senior administration official made a point to say the individuals named were not necessarily involved with the hacking of and threats against Sony Pictures.
The sanctions come after President Obama promised the U.S. would mount a response after the FBI concluded North Korea was responsible for the Sony Hack, which led to private company data being leaked online.
