North Korean officials released a statement on Sunday claiming that the American government not only conceived the idea for the film The Interview, but was also behind its production.
The statement, which was released by the Korean Central News Agency, also threatened action against the White House and the Pentagon, as well as the U.S. homeland, in reaction to reported speculation that President Obama may retaliate for the Sony cyber attack.
A translation of the statement by CNN partially read:
The DPKR has clear evidence that the U.S. administration was deeply involved in the making of such dishonest and reactionary movie…
Nothing is more serious miscalculation than guessing that just a single movie production company is the target of this counteraction…
Our target is all the citadels of the U.S. imperialists who earned the bitterest grudge of all Koreans…
The army and people of the DPKR are fully ready to stand in confrontation with the U.S. in all war spaces including cyber warfare space to blow up those citadels…
Our toughest counteraction will be boldly taken against the White House, the Pentagon and the whole U.S. mainland, the cesspool of terrorism, by far surpassing the ‘symmetric counteraction’ declared by Obama…
The Interview was scheduled to open nationwide on Christmas Day, but Sony canceled its release after terroristic threats were made against theaters ready to show the film.
The KCNA statement reportedly went on to state that U.S. government officials “went the lengths of urging the movie makers to keep all scenes insulting the dignity of the North Korean supreme leadership in the movie, saying it is needed to ‘vex the North Korean government.’”
The White House promised to respond to the menacing message.
“We will respond; we will respond proportionally, and we will respond in a place and time that we choose,” President Obama said in a statement Friday, after the FBI blamed the attack on North Korea.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.