Some internet services are back online in North Korea after the country suffered a massive outage. The unprecedented down time came amid a cyber-security row in which Sony was forced to cancel the release of a film depicting the assassination of Kim Jong Un following a suspected North Korean hack.
The BBC reports that some analysts are saying the whole country’s internet supply was cut for a time. The US government had promised to launch a “proportional response” to the cyber-attack on Sony, but the cause of the outage remains unknown. Officials in Washington refused to confirm or deny involvement.
State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf told reporters that North Korea should offer compensation to Sony for lost revenue caused by the cancellation of the film. “If they want to help here they could admit their culpability and compensate Sony for the damages that they caused,” she said.
It also comes after the South Korean government said it could not rule out the involvement of the North in another cyber-attack on its nuclear power plant operator. Although only non-critical data was stolen, it still asked the US for help investigating.
Dyn Research said that the North’s internet connection had been showing signs of instability over the weekend – more so than usual – but it was impossible to say what caused the downtime. “They could have elected to simply pull the plug or they could have suffered from some sort of failure or attack,” said analyst Earl Zmijewski.
Although North Korean authorities have denied any involvement in the Sony Attack, the CIA recently pointed the finger of blame at them.
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