according to the fbi pyongyang was involved in the hacking.an unprecedented act of cyber warfare with barack obama saying it cannot go unpunished. >> we will respond proportionally, and we will respond in a place and time and manner that we choose. >> a few days at a, north korea suffered a 10-hour-long internet shutdown. china, a lie pyongyang, has repeatedly defended its neighbor and warned against drawing hasty conclusions. >> we hope the relevant parties can keep restraint. china's position on cyber security is clear. china is opposed to all forms of cyber attack and cyber terrorism. >> relations between washington and pyongyang have been tense since the end of the korean war in the 1950's spirit when barack obama entered office, he tried to break a two-deking long standoff over pyongyang''s nuclear program. in a 2009 inaugural speech, the u.s. president spent -- sent a message to regimes. >> to those who claim power through corruption and defeat in the same and sing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history and we will ex

we'll tell you what else pyongyang is saying about it.lso, two fallen new york police officers are remembered as more threats are leveled against their fellow officers. also ahead this hour it, preparations under way in california for the rose bowl parade. how do they make those floats? and what is inside them? we'll have a report for you. welcome to our viewers in the u.s. and around the world. you're watching cnn live coverage. i'm natalee

we'll tell you what else pyongyang is saying about it. also, two fallen new york police officers are remembered as more threats are leveled against their fellow officers. also ahead this hour it, preparations under way in california for the rose bowl parade. how do they make those floats? and what is inside them? we'll have a report for you. welcome to our viewers in the u.s. and around the world. you're watching cnn live coverage. i'm natalee allen. happy holidays to you. no one expected "the interview" to get a good review from north korea and they did not disappoint issuing a scathing criticism of the comedy about a fictional plot to assassinate kim jong-un. they say the film is illegal, dishonest and contrary to the u.n. charter but they saved some of their harshest language for u.s. president barack obama and paula hancocks is following the story for us from seoul south korea and joins us now live from seoul. paula? >> well, as you say, this was expected. we knew that pyongyang was furious about this movie release. we knew they were

government wants china's help in dealing with pyongyang's cyber attack. will ripley has more on that and joins us live from tokyo. more interesting that china is in the mix of this, will. >> reporter: yeah, when i visited a cyber lacquer, they had a map around the world where a lot of cyberattacks were originating from. and one of the locations was china. number two, the united states and number three, brazil. there has long been concern about cyberattacks launching from china and technically when it comes to north korea. china and north korea have perhaps one of the strongest relationships that china has with any country. they trade with north korea. some it north kornorth koreans travel into china. most average north koreans never heard of the internet, certainly never had free access to it. simple reason being that north korea wants its people to remain isolated and don't want them though see things on the internet to give them a glimpse outside. the cyber unit to the bureau 121, these technical minds hand picked from pyongyang university are going to

all of north korea's internet traffic goes through china, a key pyongyang ally. cnn's will ripley is following this story from our tokyo bureau, and he joins us now live with the very latest. hello, will. >> hey, natalie. the reason why the focus is shifting toward china right now is a simple reality that any hacking attack, even if it was orchestrated by north korea, would be very unlikely to originate from within that country because north korea doesn't have the kind of internet infrastructure that other countries around the world have. north korea deliberately doesn't have the internet readily available because they don't want their citizens inside the country to have access outside. in fact, the average adult when i was in pyongyang just a few months ago had never even heard of the internet, had never heard of social media. the computers that they do have to use are restricted to access to an intranet inside the country. but what we're learning is that north korean hackers often are crossing over into china. china of course is bankrolling a lot of north korea

the orders may be coming from pyongyang, but it's spread around the world. it is something they are investigating. just to give you perspective on the allusiveness of bureau 121, it is an open secret. people know it exists. the government has been talking ability it. they don't know how many agents there are and how sophisticated. they are quite sophisticated. the network is quite extensive, natalie. >> they are getting help from many places around the world. what is north korea's response to all this? are they saying anything? >> well, if you are a watcher of north korea, you can predict what they are going to say, just as in previous attacks on south korea, they blanketly, patently deny it. they didn't have anything to do with it. the evidence is to the contrary. what we have seen in the hacks of the banks here in south korea, the government is very adamant. it does trace back to pyongyang somehow. that is similar malware to the sony hack. there is a continuous strain as well as the recent hack of the plants here in south korea. all of them have the finger

now pyongyang, the capital, warns of serious consequences if the u.s. retaliates. here's kyung lah with more from seoul. >> reporter: just hours after president obama lands in hawaii for the christmas holiday, the regime lashes out via state-run television with all of its usual bluster, the regime slams u.s. government's investigation of the sony hack as childish, that north korea is being framed, saying it can prove its innocence without using any torture methods like the american cia. those digs come in response to president obama, that the evidence points to pyongyang. >> they caused a lot of damage. and we will respond. we will respond proportionally and we'll respond in a place and time and manner that we choose. >>> north korea directly rebuked the president, saying it is the one who should respond after insults to its supreme leader but adds it will not conduct terror against innocent moviegoers, rather target the originators of the insult. >> you two are going to be in a room alone with kim and the cia. would love it if you could take him out. >> reporter:

this after pyongyang insists not part of the recent sony cyberact and called fo investigation with the u.s. into finding out who was responsible. chief washington correspondent james rosen is live in washington with the details. hey, james. >> good afternoon. a statement from north korea is national defense commission issued today by the state-run korean news agency vows pyongyang will strike back if president obama punishes the south on the attack on cyberpictures. the hits just keep on coming. new e-mails from amy paschal continue to surface including two. michael linton told fareed zakaria the studio is considering options for releasing the video digitally or through video on demand, but not thus far a single distributor or e commerce site has stepped up to show the incendiary comedy. >> what you saw is a nation state who engaged in trying to really destroy an american company and then took it to the broader level of using threats of violence in order to get their political will. >> no, i don't think it was an act of war. i think it was an act of cyberva cybervandalism that was very

now pyongyang has questioned a group of japanese about their alleged involvement. the group in 1970 hijacked a japan airline's passenger jet and defected to north korea. three people are wanted internationally on suspicion they abducted three japanese in europe in the 1980s. members of the group told nhk north korean officials asked them last month to meet with the special investigation committee. they say they told north korean officials they weren't involved in the abductions. the leader of the group says they will cooperate with the investigation. pyongyang's committee promised japanese delegates in october they would re-investigate other abduction case. tokyo recognizes 17 nationals as being taken by north korean agents in the 1970s and '80s. analysts says pyongyang's latest move is aimed at convincing japan they are carrying out a full scale investigation. a senior official from japan's foreign ministry is looking for help from mongolia over the issue. they will raise the matter during a visit to the capital. he will travel next week to discuss security cooper

and is there a seth rogen in pyongyang to go after -- >> who is the james/joe flacco of pyongyang. >> james flacco of pyongyang. >> that's a question i don't think we know the answer to that question. to peter's point. the hackers responded to sony's decision saying it's very wise you have made a decision to cancel the release of the "the interview." we ensure the security of your data unless you make additional trouble. this is like a missive from oz.. and that's the weirdness. on one hand the president is talking about the two stoner stars of "pineapple" express and comparing this to the boston marathon. there is this idea of what qualifies as proportional response. it's not something funny that would behoove james franco and seth rogen. but i cannot imagine how much more we can isolate the north koreans. >> it's a good question and i think it will probably not deal with the burgeoning movie business in pyongyang but have much more likely to deal with, you know, some of the computer networks inside a defense structure or something like that. my hunch is that the proportional respons

you know, they didn't know the existence of the internet in 2011, and this was a pyongyang universityscience and technology. their major was computer a lot of them, but they thought internet, it's just north korea's -- it's like predownloaded information system. they thought that was the internet. >> how did you get the notes out? that itself is a story. >> i wrote morning and night and i had a laptop with me since i was a teacher, or posing as a teacher. but then i would write all this information and then put them on the us b stick, a couple of them and erase them all from the laptop because i knew they could search my things. >> when you got it out, did you think about what it would mean to write the book in terms of the affect it would have on those students because it was a kind of total violation of the deal you had made. >> well, i mean, i'm not sure if it's a violation of a deal. first, i went in undercover. when i say undercover, i went in there with my full name. all the school had to do was google who i was. i told them i was a writer. studentwise i did everything i could d

many people pointing the finger at pyongyang.e white house has called the hacking a matter of national security. >> that is right. that cyber attack forced sony pictures to pull the release of a film "the interview," which has been at the heart of this scandal, a comedy about a plot to assassinate north korean leader kim jong in. "the independent" has a screen grab from the movie. it promises the inside story of the cyber attack that has brought hollywood to its knees. >> sony group has many people wondering what impact it will have further on, the fact that it canceled the movie. it is not a good move and could affect things down the line. >> critics say could be a dangerous precedent that could further embolden a rogue regime. the "wall street journal" has an interesting editorial today that i recommend. it's as if there is evidence that north korea is behind the cyber attack, well, the u.s. should turn the situation back on the north by dropping the "the interview" in pyongyang. they say that the rights should be wasted to the

the general assembly recommended referring pyongyang to the international criminal court.h a threat of a chinese veto the security council is taking no further action for now. kristen slewp i, a is looms al . >>> north korea's website is back on. the up. the white is declined say if the u.s. government involved. ' app adjunct professor of foreign study in seoul. says while the move by the u.n. security council is unprecedented it's you unlikely to change much. >> we understand that the two countries, china and russia oppose to move to submit this topic as a discussion topic at the security council. so, you know, considering china and russia being the two members of the key five, permanent five members of the security council, there is little expectation here that actually the security council itself will produce any real action that could impact north korea as a result of their discussion. while we are take this is all over development as something very important. but at the same time, the general expectation here is that we are not expecting real substantial move that wou

but that inconsistent access likely isn't being noticed outside pyongyang.ook at this image taken by nasa earlier this year. that dark spot in the middle is north korea where electricity is limited and only pyongyang is lit at night. and as brian todd found out, many north koreans are also in the dark about the internet. >> reporter: as the u.s. and north korea face off over a devastating cyber attack, most income -- north korean citizens are cut off. if you ask the average citizen, would they know what you are talking about? >> the people in the mountainside, countryside, in the valley far away there pyongyang, they have no idea about what internet is about. >> reporter: only the elites have access to the internet. there are just over a thousand ip addresses in the entire country. compare that to a billion and a half ip addresses across the u.s. experts say if you're in north korea and on the internet it doesn't seem any slower or more primitive. >> it looks the same as the internet that you or i might be able to access. the difference there, though, is tha

i was in their capital, pyongyang, a few months ago.ir leaders are everywhere, almost like gods, they're worshipped and honored. here in asia, defending honor is everything. so there's rampant speculation that north korea orchestrated the cyberattack on sony to take revenge. >> they're denying that they are directly involved. we all suspect they were. >> reporter: if sony suspects anything, they're not saying it publicly. a spokesman acknowledged growing speculation but would only say the investigation is ongoing. this professor says to understand why sony may be hesitant to point the finger at north korea, you need to know the geopolitics at play. do you think any japanese lawmakers would ask sony not to criticize north korea? >> maybe. >> reporter: north korea still maintains this unofficial embassy in tokyo, while the nations have no formal diplomatic ties, pyongyang does have some influence through political and business back channels. >> they want to stop the movie. >> reporter: while north korea may seem distant to most of the wor

shoot the guy, the president of pyongyang?> do i find it that north korea, not the most sophisticated country in terms of technology -- >> we thought that. >> -- was table to break through sony, a great company like that. it is worrisome. cybersecurity is an issue we've talked about a long time, the president has talked about. maybe we should have more discussions and plans about. >> but if we look at it the second time, you say, i have an iphone, i don't know how to build an iphone, but i have one. can't someone in north korea have enough money to go to the guys in the chinese and say, i know about this stuff. not that they know how to do it, they want to do it. >> but where did they get the money to hire the guy? >> where'd they get the hard money to pay enough money to get somebody to hack into sony. >> they have all kinds of slave labor camps in north korea and amassed all kinds of money. the fact is, this is a two-way war. i'm sure that we're fighting the war on our own terms, we don't talk about that. but the chinese and

this was all in front of a captive and interested audience in pyongyang. they were sitting, watching and writing everything down. they are taking this young man, who his mother says has a history of mental instability and diagnosed as bipolar. they are taking what this young man is saying and broadcasting it to their country and releasing it around the world as evidence and proof, they say, that in fact the united states is the bad guy and north korea is not the bad guy, not the one who's accused of widespread human rights allegations. they are attempting to discredit that and using this american citizen, clearly unstable american citizen, to do so. >> right. enjoying using it certainly as propaganda. yet more brainwashing to the typical north korean citizen. do we have any idea what's next for this young man? >> he told reporters in pyongyang and the government officials there listening that he wanted to seek asylum in wenz venezuela which would lead us to believe that he is free to leave that country. however the north korean government would not confirm

when they attack the messages, the orders come from pyongyang. you talk about a cyber army to dispatch so many from around the world. it is easier to hand pick and train them to fight the war. this, deb, the estimation by the south korea government is the new war. >> it is fascinating. every country has this. this is the new reality. a number of cyber experts i'm speaking to. it is not just a physical war, but everybody being in everybody else's system. the great equalizer is the fact that you know there will be a response. the people who they believe are doing this, do you know where they are being trained? is it in north korea or outside of the country to get the training? >> reporter: it is very difficult to know. the belief is they are trained in pyongyang and then dispatched. they have almost cover identities. the original training happens in pyongyang and they are selected when they are teenagers and raised to become the hackers. that's the belief right now. you are talking about a response. they don't know who to respond to. >> that's exac

we have seen pyongyang being insulting to a u.s. president as well as world leaders. it is interesting that they are singling out the u.s. president himself. they said in a statement, that they didn't carry out the hacking of sony pictures, claimed by a group called guardians of peace. they said this before, they had nothing to do with it. they are saying to washington, show us the evidence, show us proof that you have that gives you reason to believe it was us. now the fbi says the mall wear used was similar to that in attacks, alleged attacks from north korea in the past. they are saying they believe their own internet problems we have seen are the fault of washington. they believe it is a tit for tat that washington is hacking them. no response from washington at this point. natalie? >> we know the film is being downloaded, paula, often illegally, but people are seeing it and clamoring to see it because of the publicity it generated. what is the reaction there in seoul and is there a belief that people in north korea might actually see this parody of their leader?

pyongyang insists it was not involved in that hack. u.s.dent, barack obama, called the attack an act of cybervandalism. but u.s. senator john mccain described it as an act of war. >> when you destroy economies, when you are able to impose censorship on the world, and especially the united states of am kate is more than vandalism. it's a new form of warfare that we are involved in. and we need to react, react vigorously. including reimposing sanctions that were lifted under the bush administration. including other actions that will squeeze them more economically. but most of all, we have to really work together with the president and the congress to come up with counters and abilities to -- to respond to, but more, more importantly, to prevent. >> john mccain there. well the director of bbc television is also weighing in on the issue. danny cohen. oversees, bbc entertainment programming says he is deeply concerned about the implications of sony's decision. >> the big thing the most important thing is that this doesn't limit freedom of expres

i was in their capital of pyongyang a few months ago. pictures of their leaders are everywhere, almost like gods. here in asia, defending honor is everything. so there's speculation that north korea planned this for revenge. if sony suspects anything, they are not saying it publicly. a spokesman acknowledged growing speculation but would only say the investigation is ongoing. a university professor says to understand why sony may be hesitant to point the finger at north korea, you need to know the geo politics at play. >> do you think any japanese lawmakers would ask sony not to criticize north korea? >> maybe. >> reporter: north korea still maintains this unofficial embassy in tokyo. while the nations have no formal diplomatic ties, pyongyang has some ties. while north korea may seem distant to most of the world, its military launches project tiles into the sea of japan. pea you pyongyang forced the abductees to train north korean spies. >> the abductee issue is extremely sensitive in japan. >> reporter: tokyo and pyongyang are in the m

experts say it could have been anonymous or that pyongyang could have pulled the plug themselves.ome say the timing is a little too coincidental coming days after this warning from president obama: >> we will respond proportion anotherly and we'll respond in a place and time and manager that we choose. >> last week, the f.b.i. confirmed north korea was behind the sony cyber attack, leaking thousands of corporate documents, retaliation for the comedy "the interview." in the movie two journalists are sent by the c.i.a. to assassinate north korean leader kim jong-un. >> silence will not make the north korean government end its abuses. silence will not make the international community safer. >> sony is asked to screen the film on capitol hill. >> we are not going to be deprived of seeing what is either a good or bad movie just because of threats from north korea. >> with internet service restored, the recluesive government may already be back on the net offensive, now accused of hacking a south screen nuclear plant leaking dozens of non-critical documents. >> on this potential attack

it was pretty vicious stuff from pyongyang. we can never forgive their explicit terrorist provocative deed, producing a film whereby they publicly mirrored the aspiration to assassinate our highest political leader. so there's genuine anger from pyongyang, and clearly what some would perceive as a failure of sense of humor. the film, as you detected from those clips, is a romp. it's an out-and-out comedy. but clearly they don't see the funny side in pyongyang. whether or not they're behind the cyber attacks. some people in south korea are saying the style of the attacks mirrors attacks on south korean television stations and atms here. but we don't know who did it. that's the truth of it. it's simply at the moment a matter of pointing fingers and trying to detect fingerprints. >> and i gather the north korean ambassador to the u.n. was simply saying just wait and see, when asked if his country was guilty. do we know whether north korea has the technical ability to do this sort of hacking? >> reporter: we do. it's a bizarre situ

quite a sight in that room in pyongyang this morning. >> and any comment from the united states? >> the state department says they are aware of reports that have now been circulated since cnn broke this story several hours ago that there's this american in north korea. they said the safety of american citizens are their top priority but they didn't comment any further beyond that. this boy's mother claims she had contacted the u.s. embassy in beijing and asked them to locate her son. until we call her at her overwhelm in el paso she was unaware he successfully made knit to north korea until she saw the photos on television. >> that's unreal. i'm sure she's worried about him because he wants to go to venezuela. who knows what will happen next now that he got himself into north korea. all right, will, we'll talk to you later about another story. there's an hour left in japan until polls close. prime minister abe calling for the snap election last month. he said it's a referendum on his economic policies. those policies dubbed abenomics including a stimulus package. the country slip

once question pyongyang says it had nothing to do with the hacking of sony picture.ans of peace. they're saying to washington, show us the proof. show us the evidence that you have that makes you believe that north korea was involved. now, the fbi has said that they believe north korea was involved because of the malware used in the attack was similar to other alleged cyber attacks that they believe north korea was involved in. pyongyang also saying they've had internet troubles of their own over the past five days. it's not clear whether or not they have been hacked, but they believe that washington is behind that. we're not hearing any comment from washington at this point. and, of course, all this controversy, all this news, the fact this is in the headlines is pr gold for this movie. we are seeing hundreds of thousands of downloads around the world, especially here inside korea, where most people probably wouldn't have even gone to see the movie as it didn't have a distributor before all this controversy started. but certainly this is helping sales somewhat. the

president obama pointing the finger at pyongyang for the massive cyber attack on sony >>> lying on the witness stand, a stunning admission which the prosecutor in the michael brown case. he said he now some witnesses gave false testimony. [ singing ] >>> from concern to celebration - new diplomacy between the united states and havana getting mixed reviews in miami >>> plus, preserving a piece of hollywood history >>> good morning, welcome to al jazeera america thank you for joining us this saturday morning. i'm morgan radford live in new york city. north korea is denying that it had anything to do with the attack on sony pictures, and pyongyang is calling for a violent investigation with the united states. president obama is holding them accountable, vowing that the u.s. will respond to the breach. it led sony to cancel the christmas release of "the interview", a movie the president called a mistake. they are firing back. >> reporter: president obama put north korea on notice. the u.s. will strike back for the cyber attack on sony pictures. >> they caused a lot of damage. and we will r

one imagines there will be satisfaction in the governments in pyongyang, and in the community. a very sophisticated computer people, coders, which north korea is known to have. so it's certainly a victory. i suppose if you look at it from some distance from pyongyang, you say well, if you want to see the nature of the regime, it's clear lay regime which doesn't value free speech, assuming it did it. up with other aspect, it seems very different from this part of the world than it does from europe and hollywood, and that's because sony pictures is a japanese company. it's part of sony. so it's not clear whether that decision to pull the film was taken in tokyo or in beverly hills. we know that the executives, the top executives of the sony corporation have been very concerned about itti init, beca japan's relations with north korea are pretty dire and north korea is a nuclear power, it's been testing atomic weapons. so the whole thing from tokyo would seem a lot more serious than a bit of a spat over a comedy which people might not have heard of had this thing not blown up. >> s

government agencies and department and concluded that pyongyang is responsible.several factors. links to other malware north korean actors previously developed. including similarities in code and encryption algorithms, investigators all traced several internet protocol addresses associated with known north korea infrastructure. and they found similarities to a cyber attack launched by north korea in march 2013 against south korean banks and media outlets. president obama put north korea on notice that the united states will strike back for the cyber attack. >> they caused a lot of damage. and we will respond. we will respond flo proportionay and we will respond in a place and time and manner that we choose. >> reporter: the cyber attack was apparently motivated by sony less movie "the interview." forting a satire cal assassination plot against the leader of north korea. hackers stole movie description, personnel information, and confidential e-mails from sony's network prompting the movie giant to suspends the release of the movie. major theater chains across the

pyongyang ringing in the new year. let's take a new look at headlines on france 24.alestinians moved to join the international criminal court as president money would abbas signs a statute mah --moud abbas sings a statute. italian coast guard managed to take control of a ship moments before it crashed into the coastline. the ship was carrying 700 migrants, most of them syrian. a historic day for tunisia -- the first democratically elected head of state says he promises to reconcile rival factions. let's get a round up of the day's business news with marcus, who is back with this onset -- us on set. it has been a difficult year for the euro. but 2015 start on a high note. >> we have been talking about the eurozone in negative terms all week because of political turmoil in greece. that has waned in global markets. the latest difficulties increase seem to highlight the difficulties that still lie ahead for the eurozone in 2015. but the year's end has a vote of confidence in the currency. lithuania will be joining as the 19th member of the currency area. with a populatio

friday in pyongyang, north korea. wherever you're watching from around the world, thank very much for joining us. up first a crippling cyber terror attack about to be officially blamed on north korea. an announcement expected as early as today by the obama administration. u.s. officials believe the north korean leadership directly ordered the attack on sony pictures and the fallout from the attack keeps on growing. sony is being criticized by some for canceling the christmas day release of the movie at the center of the controversy. the movie titled "the interview" angered north korea because it depicts a plot to assassinate the north korean leader, kim jong-un. pamela brown is joining us now. what have you learned about the u.s. linking the attack directly to north korea? because as you know, the north korean government has flatly denied it was responsible and praised all the criticism of the film, but it doesn't -- it insists it had nothing to do with the hacking? >> you're right. the north korean government has den

. >>> members of the united nations want pyongyang in international court for human rights abuses. the general assembly approved a resolution denouncing north korea's rights record. it's the harshest of all attacks by japan and the european union over the past ten years. the draft says north korean officials have carrieded out wide ranging abuses, including torture and public executions and it urges the u.n. security council to refer the issue to the international criminal court to bring those responsible to justice. north korea's delegation strongly rejected the resolution. >> will not tolerate an attempt for overthrowing the social system. >> they passed by a majority vote. 20 members opposed, including china and russia. japan's representative said it should be a wake up call for pyongyang. >> north korea should take seriously the fact that the international community has showed strong concerns over the country's oppression of human rights. >> members of the u.n. security council are expected to discuss north korea's human rights situation the first time next week. >>> jordan has

how did pyongyang react to this debate generated on this topic? dismissing it. alleging it is a political conspiracy and an international smear campaign. the government also affirmed in written form in a letter to the secretary general dated 24th of november that this could launch -- undertake a new nuclear test. this is a clear threat to international peace and security. mr. president, it is of grave concern the dprk continues to develop its nuclear program as well as its delivery system at the great cost of the humanitarian situation for its people, despite the sanctions established pursuant to the resolution. -- resolution 1718. this strengthens our conviction we must adopt a broader focus. it allows us to prevent a new conflict on the korean peninsula, which would have regional and global consequences and scope. it is clear the approach under which we have worked so far is not enough collectively. we must bring greater pressure to bear. it is essential the appropriate measures be adopted to put in end to the human rights violations included in the reports of

he's probably sitting there in pyongyang saying, how did this happen? everybody is basically cowering in the face of what north korea did. >> it's absolutely extraordinary. extraordinary that they would make such a big deal over a satire and extraordinary that thus far it's been successful. but we have to make sure that there's a different ending to this story. >> we have a lot more to discuss. i want you to stand by, including what the u.s. should be doing about this. once again, you can seyfried's exclusive interview with the sony entertainment ceo, michael lynton in full later tonight on "a.c. 360," 8:00 p.m. eastern only here on cnn. we'll have much more on the breaking news right after this. i was out for a bike ride. i didn't think i'd have a heart attack. but i did. i'm mike, and i'm very much alive. now my doctor recommends a bayer aspirin regimen to help prevent another heart attack. be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. and our big idaho potato truck is still missing. so my buddy here is going to help me find it.

government claims pyongyang was behind the attack on sony pictures. state department spokeswoman refusing to say if the u.s. was behind north korea's internet trouble. cnn's kyung lah is live from seoul with the latest. the u.s. is not saying whether it did it. the u.s. is not saying what it could do as it's response to the north korean hack on sony. tell us how this works. nkts north korea does not have a vibrant internet. it goes through china. it could be north korea that shut it off or it could be the u.s. >> reporter: it could be a number of factors. when you look at the possibilities are and the number of actors involved, it could be a number of things. getting to the pipe. a pipe out of north korea. think of it, north korea has pyongyang, one business and shooting a pipe out of north korea into china. someone essentially took scissors to it and cut the cord. who did it? it could have been north korea saying we will take a preemptive strike. we hear president obama. he's mad and we don't want viruses to come to us. the president said he was goin

investigators blaming north korea for the sony hacking, there are growing concerns pyongyang might becomeorth korea is coming out of its official mourning period for the dead leader, kim jong il. and many are concerned the new young leader kim jong un might lash out. >>' he's now unshackled, free to be more aggressive as he comes out of the traditional three-year period of morning for his late father. kim jong un was supposed to observe that period by being less aggressive, lying low. many argued he never waited. >> in addition to executing his uncle, he has purged anyone who can question his leadership or his authority. >> he braisingly killed his powerful uncle, threatened south korea. what could he do now that's more aggressive? >> he could likely have a fourth nuclear test. in the meantime, cyberattack, asimilymmetric attacks across t northern limit line at sea or with assassinations or terrorism even. >> kim's regime did make some peaceful overtures recently, releasing three americans from north korean custody, sending top officials to visit south korea. but those moves are now seen

the regime in pyongyang is furious over sony's soon to be released comedy the interview in which starsgan and james franco obtain an interview with north keyon leader kim jong un only to be persuaded by the cia to use the opportunity to assassinate him. >> the cia would love it if you could take him out. >> huh? >> take him out. >> like for drinks? >> like to dinner? >> take him out on the town? >> no, take him out. >> you want us to kill the leader of north korea? >> yes. >> what? >> reporter: north korean state media called the film an act of war and warned of merciless retaliation. the malware used by the hackers was written in korean and pyongyang phrased the cyber assault as a righteous deed. no matter who did it, the hack has caused enormous disruption and embarrassment. at one of the world's biggest movie makers. zone had i to shutdown its entire system leaving workals to scribble communication with his pen on paper. hacked e-mails included insulting reference to his movie stars, director scott rude inning called actress and humanitarian activist angelina gee lee jolie a minimal

a new statement from pyongyang steadfastly denied the hack on sony, but claims the u.s. government was behind the making of the picture "the interview." president obama taking a cautious approach. he tells cnn's candy crowley as cyber vandalism. not cyber war. >> we will be in an environment in this new world where so much is digitalized. that state and non state actors have the capacity to disrupt our lives in all sorts of ways. we have to do a better job of guarding against that. >> we have kyung lah live from seoul. i don't want to look lightly on this, but when you hear the rambling response where they say they were responsible for the sony hack, but threaten the citadels with hacking. i don't know. they contradict themselves. >> reporter: yeah. all the time. that's the frustration in dealing with the hermit kingdom. it is extraordinarily frustrating dealing with north korea. this statement verges on the nonsense. north korea saying we did not do this, but we support what has been happening with the outside agents. i want to read a couple lines of the fiery statement

also, a north korean defector reveals secrets of pyongyang's shadowy team of cyberwarriors. speak to a man who served as one of the top cyberdefenders. we begin with the breaking news on how the infiltrators who ever they were actually did it. our justice correspondent, evan perez broke this story. he joins us now. stole the pass words of a system administrator so they could get access to the entire computer system at sony. in this way, one, one person i talked to today said they had the keys to the entire building. they roamed around to get lay of the land. before any one notice they'd were there. >> stole the credentials. make it look like an inside job. witz n it was not an inside job. does the trail still lead to north korea? >> yes, investigators working on this from the, from the fbi, from nsa, from the justice department national security division, all have been pouring over the evidence that they have. they, the nsa has good visibility into the, into the pipes that carry internet traffic in and out of north korea. and that's one way we know -- that, that, that the u.

i was in their capital pyongyang a few months ago.res of their leaders are are everywhere, almost like gods. they're worshipped and honored. and here in asia, defending honor is everything. so there's rampant spec lags that north korea orchestrated the cyberattack on sony to take revenge. >> and they're denying that they're directly involved. we all suspect they were. >> if sony suspects anything, they're not saying it publicly. a spokesman acknowledged growing speculation, but would only say the investigation is ongoing. a university professor says to understand why sony may be hesitant to point the finger, you need to know the geo politics at play. >> do you think any japanese law makers would ask sony not to criticize north korea? >> maybe. >> reporter: north korea still maintains this unofficial embassy in tokyo. while the nations have no formal diplomatic ties, pyongyang does have some influence through political and business back chams. >> they want to stop the movie. >> and while north korea may seem distant to most of the worl

also, a north korean defector reveals the secrets of pyongyang's cyber war yors. we speak to man who served as one of the top cyber defenders. we begin with the breaking news on how these infill traitors, whoever they were, actually did it. our justice correspondent evan perez joins us now. what's is it word? >> reporter: john, they made it look like an inside job. they stole, the hackers stole the credentials, the passwords of a system administrator, so that they could get access to the entire system, the entire computer system at sony and in this way, one person i talked to today said they had the keys to the entire building. they were able to roam around. this is what they did. for some time, they roamed around to get a lay of the land, figure out what they wanted before they did anything and before anyone noticed they were there. >> stole the credentials to look like an inside job but was not an inside job. does the trail still lead to north korea? >> yes, the investigators who have been working on this from the fbi, from the nsa, from the justice department's

military complex and further economic sanctions including implying even tighter restrictions to pyongyang'sdenominated trade, desperately poor country's life line to fuel food and crucially weapons. they're not yet calling the hack an act of terror or war. >> the cyber domain remains challenging. it remains very fluid. part of the reason why it's such a challenging domain for us is because there aren't internationally accepted norms and protocols. >> reporter: there are other steps the u.s. could take, stealthier reforms of retaliation, such as cyber attacks on critical systems in north korea delivered in a way that the source remains unclear. the stuks net virus that was used against iran. the administration very conscious of avoiding escalation. they don't want to provoke further provocation or even worse. jim sciutto, cnn, washington. >>> the ceo of sony pictures entertainment is defending his company's decision to pull the film from theaters. michael linton spoke with fareed zakaria in this exclusive tv interview. >> the president says sony made a mistake in pulling the film. did you ma

policy in an unusual news conference in pyongyang.o pierre martinez of el paso says he entered north korea illegally. his mother tells cnn her son is quite intelligent but has bipolar disorder. >>> a one trillion dollar spending bill on its way to president obama after passing the senate. it removed the threat of a shutdown for most of 2015. the bill will fund most of the federal government through september. >>> a u.n. conference on climate change has approved a draft for the 2015 agreement according to the twitter account lima cop 20 it was signed with no objection. the 2015 accord is expected to commit every country to cutting greenhouse gas emissions. >>> well, happening this hour in japan voters are heading to the polling stations for primary elections. prime minister shinzo abe says the vote is a referendum on his economic policies. those policies called abenomics are designed to kick start japan's lagging economy. instead, the country slipped into an unexpected recession. but mr. abe's ruling party is expected to hold onto a cl

he is a north korean defector, former pyongyang military systems computer administrator, attempting to an agency nearly impossible to chase. bureau 121, a shadow agency with an one known number of the regime's handpicked shadow agents placed in countries around the world. he believes there are approximately 1800 of them, though he says the agents themselves don't know how many exist. we can't verify jong's claims about the shadow group, but he says he has obtained from a current operative hundreds of financial files hacked from south korean banks, complete with names and other bank account details. is the cyberwar the real war for north korea? >> translator: raising cyberagents is fairly cheap, he says. the world has the wrong view of the north korean state. with that incorrect world view, north korea was able to increase its ability to launch cyberattacks. south korea learned the hard way. banks across the country last year were paralyzed, atms frozen for days. media outlets went dark, servers jammed or wiped. north korea denied it was the source of the hack. but in the wake of the at

we have unit 121, which is a cyber warfare unit based in pyongyang. we don't know whether they were involved in these attacks, but they probably will were. we know that there's close cooperation between china and pyongyang. they knew what was going on. they undoubtedly know that there's going to be attacked and sunny because they maintained the great firewall -- on sony because they maintained the great firewall. north koreans cannot be hacking sunday from within china without the chinese government knowing. host: gordon chang contributes to the "daily beast". he has lectured on north korea and china. has testified before congress and given briefings at the national intelligence the cia, the pentagon. and an author of a book. the numbers are up on the screen if you want to participate in a conversation with him on the sony hacking case. 202-748-8001 for republicans. 202-748-8000 for democrats. 202-748-8002 for independents. comment via make a social media -- twitter or join the conversation on facebook. chang, the "financial times" lleads with this mo