North Korea accuses US of shutting down internet

The North Korean regime accuses the United States of shutting down the internet in the Stalinist country. Both countries are embroiled in a heated feud that began when Sony’s systems were hacked over an “offensive” film.

In response, the regime has stated that the United States is responsible for the outage that North Korea suffered earlier this week. On Monday, the Asian country went completely offline. “The United States […] has begun disrupting our republic’s internet activities,” a spokesman said in a statement to Reuters. No details were given about the possible involvement of the United States.

Shortly after the internet went down in North Korea on Monday, the United States was already pointed to as a possible perpetrator. The two countries have been arguing for some time. However, the White House denied having anything to do with North Korea’s internet problems. After a disruption of about 9 hours, the internet was restored. However, the Chinese news agency Xinhua reports that the internet in North Korea has now been disrupted again.

The escalating conflict between the United States and North Korea started after hackers called GOP broke into Sony’s servers and stole company data. The hackers demanded that Sony not release an “offensive” film plotting an assassination plot against dictator Kim Jong-un. However, the film was released on Christmas Day. According to the United States, there is evidence that North Korea is behind the hack. President Obama said he would respond appropriately, but did not specify what the country has in store.