Pyongyang vows to retaliate over Washington ransomware blame

Another N Korean soldier defects to South

FE Team | Published: December 21, 2017 21:45:17

SEOUL, Dec 21 (Agencies): North Korea said Thursday that a U.S. accusation that it was behind a major ransomware attack was 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 and crippled parts of Britain's National Health Service.
In remarks carried by state media, the North's Foreign Ministry repeated it had nothing to do with the attack. It said it will never tolerate such "reckless" U.S. claims but didn't say how it would respond.
"The Trump administration is inciting an extremely confrontational atmosphere by even concocting a plot against us at this delicate moment when the situation on the Korean Peninsula is at the crossroads of nuclear war or peace," an unidentified ministry spokesman said.
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.
South Korea and U.S. officials have accused North Korea of launching a slew of cyberattacks in recent years. Among them is a U.S. accusation that it hacked Sony Pictures Entertainment over the movie "The Interview," a satirical film about a plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The North has denied those accusations.
Meanwhile, South Korea's military has fired warning shots at North Korean guards searching for a soldier who defected.
The North Korean soldier had walked across the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) shortly after 08:00 (23:00 GMT Wednesday).
He had emerged from thick fog at a checkpoint, said the South's military.
Officials said the sound of gunshots coming from the North was heard about 40 minutes later, although no bullets were found to have crossed the border.
Very few North Korean defectors risk crossing to the South via the DMZ.
One of the world's most heavily guarded strips of land, the DMZ is a thin buffer zone between the two Koreas and is fortified on both sides with barbed wire, surveillance cameras, electric fencing and landmines.
Last month's defection saw a soldier drive a jeep right up to the border, in a dramatic escape captured on surveillance cameras.
He ran across to the South in a hail of bullets from North Korean guards.
Shot five times, the soldier collapsed in a pile of leaves on the South's side, and was later rescued by South Korean soldiers.