SEOUL, South Korea (AP) \u2014 North Korea said Thursday that a U.S. accusation that it was behind a major ransomware attack was a \u201cgrave political provocation\u201d and vowed to retaliate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Homeland security adviser Tom Bossert wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed published Monday that North Korea will be held accountable for May\u2019s WannaCry ransomware attack that infected hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide and crippled parts of Britain\u2019s National Health Service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In remarks carried by state media, the North\u2019s Foreign Ministry repeated it had nothing to do with the attack. It said it will never tolerate such \u201creckless\u201d U.S. claims but didn\u2019t say how it would respond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe 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,\u201d an unidentified ministry spokesman said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s not unusual for Pyongyang to issue harsh rhetoric against Washington and Seoul. Thursday\u2019s warning came amid heightened animosities following the North\u2019s test-launch of its most powerful missile last month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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 \u201cThe Interview,\u201d a satirical film about a plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The North has denied those accusations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bossert said the U.S. administration\u2019s finding of responsibility is based on evidence and confirmed by other governments and private companies, including the United Kingdom and Microsoft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
North Korea said Thursday that a U.S. accusation that it was behind a major ransomware attack was a \u201cgrave political provocation\u201d and vowed to retaliate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":32034,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[106,29,32],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1328],"class_list":["post-25904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-brief","category-home","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"TOXD2ASDPZBETHYQ6L546VRF6A","arc_canonical_url":"\/international\/2017\/12\/21\/north-korea-vows-to-retaliate-over-us-ransomware-accusation\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n