朝鮮威脅將對美國發動報復襲擊

North Korea has warned of strikes against key sites in the US in retaliation for Washington blaming Pyongyang for the recent Sony cyber attack, saying any US punishment over the incident would lead to damage “thousands of times greater”.

Late on Sunday North Korea’s National Defence Commission said President Barack Obama was “recklessly” spreading rumours that Pyongyang was behind the cyber attack. The film studio has pulled The Interview , a satirical movie depicting the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, after the hacking and subsequent threats of terrorist attacks against cinemas that screened it.

The NDC said its 1.2m-member army was ready to use all types of warfare against the US. “Our toughest counteraction will be boldly taken against the White House, the Pentagon, and the whole US mainland, the cesspool of terrorism, by far surpassing the ‘symmetric counteraction’ declared by Obama,” said the NDC statement, carried by official news agency KCNA.

Pyongyang has routinely made similar threats against South Korea and the US during times of confrontation but the latest hostile rhetoric against Washington underlines Pyongyang’s anger over the movie.
The threat comes as US officials are scrambling to come up with ways to retaliate after the FBI announced on Friday that it believed North Korea was behind the cyber attack against Sony, and warned that it would impose “costs and consequences” on those responsible.

Huge amounts of Sony Pictures data were accessed and then destroyed in last month’s hack. Employee pay details, health records, social security numbers and other personal data were then dumped online. The hackers, who call themselves Guardians of Peace, also released Sony executives’ private emails to the media.

Mr Obama has said he is considering imposing new sanctions on North Korea, including putting Pyongyang back on its list of state sponsors of terrorism, six years after it was removed from the list.

Pyongyang has denied its involvement and proposed a joint investigation into the cyber attack, but it promised in June to “mercilessly destroy” anyone associated with The Interview.

Experts believe North Korea has the capacity to hack any organisation in the world, with South Korea’s former defence minister Kim Kwan-jin saying last year that the communist country operates an elite unit of 3,000 cyber experts.

Seoul has accused Pyongyang of numerous cyber attacks over the past five years. It is now investigating the online leak of data related to its nuclear reactors after a recent attack on the country’s nuclear plant operator’s computer systems.

翻譯僅供參考

朝鮮警告說，爲報復美國政府將索尼(Sony)最近所受網絡襲擊歸咎朝鮮政府的行爲，朝鮮將對美國重要目標發動襲擊。並表示，美國圍繞該事件的任何懲罰措施，都將招致“成千上萬倍的”損失。

週日晚些時候，朝鮮國防委員會(National Defence Commission)表示，美國總統巴拉克•奧巴馬(Barack Obama)“十分魯莽地”傳播了朝鮮政府是這次網絡襲擊幕後主使的謠言。在遭遇網絡襲擊和針對電影《刺殺金正恩》(The Interview)播出影院的恐襲威脅後，索尼的工作室已經停止了該電影的發行。

朝鮮國防委員會表示，其120萬軍隊已準備好動用各種武器對付美國。這份聲明由官方朝鮮中央通訊社(KCNA)發佈。在該聲明中，朝鮮國防委員會表示：“我們將對白宮(White House)、五角大樓(Pentagon)、以及作爲恐怖主義泥潭的整個美國本土，大膽發動最殘酷的反擊。這種反擊的力度將遠遠超過奧巴馬宣稱的‘系統性反擊’。”

在與韓國和美國對峙期間，朝鮮政府會經常發出針對兩者的類似威脅。不過，朝鮮最近對美國政府的這一敵意言論，凸顯出朝鮮政府對《刺殺金正恩》的憤怒情緒。

在朝鮮發出這一威脅之際，美國官員正在考慮對朝鮮反擊的方式。此前，美國聯邦調查局(FBI)曾在週五宣稱，該機構相信朝鮮是索尼所受網絡襲擊的幕後主使，並警告說它將讓責任人“付出相應代價並承擔相應後果”。

奧巴馬曾表示，他正在考慮向朝鮮施加新的制裁措施，其中包括將朝鮮再次列入支持恐怖主義的國家名單。6年前，美國曾將朝鮮從該名單上移除。

朝鮮政府否認曾參與這次網絡襲擊，並提議開展對該網絡襲擊的聯合調查。不過，今年6月，朝鮮曾發誓要“無情毀滅”任何與《刺殺金正恩》有關的人。

此外，由於朝鮮涉嫌通過中國網絡發起對索尼的襲擊，美國官員還曾與中國接觸，請中方幫忙封堵源自朝鮮的網絡攻擊。不過，中國並未迴應美國對朝鮮採取措施的呼籲，而只是表示中國反對任何形式的網絡攻擊。

中國外交部週一在一份聲明中表示：“中國反對任何一個國家以及任何人使用其他國家的系統對第三方國家進行網絡攻擊。”