North Korean officials have denounced and denied a U.S. indictment that accuses one of its citizens of helping carry out the 2017 WannaCry global ransomware attack, the 2014 Sony Pictures hack, an $81 cyberheist of Bangladesh's central bank in 2016, and other cyberattacks on behalf of his government.
According to multiple news outlets [1, 2, 3], a North Korean Foreign Ministry official issued a statement calling the Sept. 6 legal filing "vicious slander" and a "smear campaign" that could damage relations between his country and the U.S. in the wake of denuclearization negotiations. The official also reportedly referred to Park Jin Hyo, the indicted man, as a "non-entity," even though the U.S. Department of Justice believes he is a member of the North Korea-sponsored hacking team known as the Lazarus Group.
In similar remarks carried by the Korean Central News Agency, Han Yong Song, a researcher at the North Korean Foreign Ministry's Institute for American Studies, reportedly said the crimes listed in the federal indictment have "nothing to do with us."
"The U.S. should seriously ponder over the negative consequences of circulating falsehoods and inciting antagonism against the DPRK that may affect the implementation of the joint statement adopted at the DPRK-U.S. summit," the researcher said in the statement.
