Pyongyang: This Saturday, Oct. 7, 2017 photo distributed by the North Korean government shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un speaking during a meeting of the central committee of the Workers' Party of Korea in Pyongyang. The granting of the Nobel Peace Prize to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons opened itself to a clear interpretation across Asia: When it comes to the nuclear-saturated war of words on the Korean Peninsula, attention must be paid and treaties must be signed. And it must be done in a preventative way, at top speed, before something happens that can't be undone. Looming in the background of the award announcement Friday, Oct. 6, was the sometimes scalding, sometimes tepid, never silent geopolitical scuffle this year between the young leader of the third-generation Pyongyang regime and the always voluble president of the United States. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. AP/PTI(AP10_8_2017_000043B)
North Korea has described a US accusation that it was behind a ransomware attack as a “grave political provocation” and vowed to retaliate.
Homeland security adviser Tom Bossert wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed published Monday that North Korea will be held accountable for May’s WannaCry ransomware attack that infected hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide.
The North’s Foreign Ministry repeated Thursday it had nothing to do with the attack. It said it will never tolerate such “reckless” US claims but didn’t say how it would respond.
It’s not unusual for Pyongyang to issue harsh rhetoric against Washington and Seoul. Thursday’s warning came amid heightened animosities following the North’s test-launch of its most powerful missile last month.
