Well, looks like Barack Obama wasn’t kidding when he said that there’d be an appropriate response to North Korea’s Sony hacks and e-mail leaks. From CNN:
The United States is hitting North Korea with a new set of economic sanctions after determining the country was behind last month’s computer hack at Sony.
The White House said new rules would prevent leaders in North Korea’s government from accessing property and entering the United States. The isolated nuclear regime, which has denied involvement in the Sony hack, was already subject to a strict set of U.S. economic restrictions.
Among the agencies targeted by the new sanctions Friday was the Reconnaissance General Bureau, an intelligence agency the U.S. said was responsible for “major cyber operations” in North Korea.
The new sanctions also target officials at North Korea’s Mining Development Trading Corporation, which the U.S. says is responsible for the country’s arms dealing and weapons export business.
Seven officials who represent North Korea’s arms dealing trade in Africa, Iran, Russia and Syria were designated by the U.S. Treasury as subject to the new economic sanctions.
I guess that’s something, though it doesn’t do anything to help solve the key problem with North Korea, which is that they are the absolute worst at human rights. Instead it further isolates North Korea’s defence industry so as to deter future cyber-attacks, which they’re sure to be very annoyed about as they still insist they had nothing to do with the attacks.
P.S. Wouldn’t a real eye for eye in this situation be to get those Lizard Squad nerds to mess with Kim Jong-un’s Internet and e-mails for a little while? Lizard Squad get to redeem themselves for the Christmas Day stunts they pulled and Kim gets a little taste of his own medicine. After all you just know Kim has sent a dodgy e-mail or two in his time.