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Korea threatens US over hacking claims

22 December 2014 15:04 (UTC +04:00)

Pyongyang specifically threatened the White House and the Pentagon in a long statement from the powerful National Defence Commission late on Sunday.

Such North Korean rhetoric during times of high tension with Washington is routine. But it also underscores the country's sensitivity over a movie whose plot focuses on the assassination of leader Kim Jong-un.

The US blames North Korea for the cyberattack that escalated to threats of terror attacks against US movie theatres and caused Sony to cancel the release of "The Interview".

The US is now considering whether to put North Korea back on its list of state sponsors of terror, Obama said on Sunday.

"We're going to review those through a process that's already in place," the president said in an interview aired on Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union".

"And we don't make those judgements just based on the news of the day. We look systematically at what's been done and based on those facts, we'll make those determinations in the future."

North Korea had earlier denied responsibility for the hack attack and proposed a joint investigation with the US to find the culprits.

Obama's remarks, in the interview which was taped on Friday, followed a call from a leading US senator to reconsider North Korea's terror designation.