HONOLULU -- President Barack Obama, responding to the hacking of Sony Corp. computers, slapped sanctions Friday on 10 North Korean officials and three state organizations accused of key roles in the country's cyberattacks, weapons proliferation and other illicit activities.
It was the first public action taken by the U.S. after Obama last month said the U.S. would address the cyberattack on Sony's movie studio "in a place and time and manner that we choose." The administration said more punishment is coming.
"We take seriously North Korea's attack that aimed to create destructive financial effects on a U.S. company and to threaten artists and other individuals with the goal of restricting their right to free expression," White House press secretary Josh Earnest said in a statement that accompanied release of an executive order. "Today's actions are the first aspect of our response."
Never before has the U.S. slapped sanctions on a foreign nation in direct retaliation for a cyberattack on an American company. But U.S. officials said North Korea's behavior had crossed a threshold that necessitated a swift and decisive response.
The effect of the move to block U.S. bank access and business dealings with targeted people and entities will be limited by the fact that impoverished North Korea already is largely isolated from the rest of the world.
The sanctions are intended as a signal to other nations that cyberattacks like the one on Sony cross a line, an administration official said.
The hacking of Sony's computer system was different because it wasn't simply an attempt to disrupt traffic, spy or steal information, but to destroy data on a foreign network, said the official, who asked for anonymity to discuss internal administration debates.
One of the intended recipients of the message is China, which has the world's largest cyberespionage operation and has been the main point of influence over North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the official said. The U.S. wants to send a signal about destructive hacking as well as attempt to enlist China's support, the official said.
Obama's executive order gives the U.S. broad authority to cut off financing to any official in the North Korean government or member of the Workers' Party of Korea, said another administration official, who briefed reporters by phone on condition of anonymity.
The official said none of the agencies or individuals listed in the sanctions are believed to have been directly involved in the hacking of Sony Pictures Entertainment's computer system.
The cyberattack on Sony exposed Hollywood secrets, destroyed company data and caused the studio to initially cancel the release of The Interview, a comedy about a fictional assassination of Kim. The hackers rendered thousands of computers inoperable and forced Sony to take its entire computer network offline.
In a Dec. 19 statement, the FBI said it had collected "enough information to conclude that the North Korean government is responsible for these actions."
The president's statement touched off an escalating debate between skeptics who said the attack came from inside Sony and government officials who said it could be traced to North Korea.
The security firms and analysts questioning the government's decision to "attribute" the attack to North Korea say that the public indicators do not back up the case. They contend that the United States may have been duped by ingenious hackers who know how easy it is to hide one's tracks in the cyberworld.
But Obama's aides say those analysts do not have access to the evidence that persuaded the president, who is usually cautious on intelligence issues, to blame North Korea. They continue to insist that they cannot explain the basis of the president's declaration without revealing some of the most sensitive sources and technologies at their disposal.
The group that claimed credit for the cyberattack also invoked the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in threatening movie fans with violence if they went to see The Interview, prompting major theater chains to decide against showing it and Sony to scrap its release.
After criticism from Obama and some Hollywood stars for pulling the film back, Sony's Culver City, Calif.-based studio distributed the movie to several hundred independent theaters and released it through Internet video services. The company since has expanded its release of The Interview to the largest pay-television services and to additional theaters after initial showings occurred without incident.
Under previous sanctions, the U.S. has already blocked transactions involving individuals and entities that help North Korea sell and buy arms, procure luxury goods, or engage in illegal activities such as money laundering or drug trafficking.
People in the U.S. are banned from doing business with individuals and entities designated by the Obama administration. The list already included the Reconnaissance General Bureau, North Korea's primary intelligence agency, which the Treasury Department named Friday.
The new sanctions added the Korea Mining Development Trading Corp., the nation's primary arms dealer, and the Korea Tangun Trading Corp., which buys commodities and technology to support the nation's defense research.
The 10 individuals are either listed as government employees or representatives of the two corporations.
In promising a U.S. response to the hacking attack, Obama and his aides have said some aspects of it might not be made public. Obama has said he would review whether the U.S. should put North Korea back on the list of state sponsors of terror. That designation was lifted during President George W. Bush's administration in an attempt to make progress on negotiations over the regime's nuclear weapons program.
North Korea last week blamed the U.S. for an Internet failure it experienced, calling Obama "reckless in words and deeds." It also said that any U.S. punishment over the Sony hacking would lead to damage "thousands of times greater."
North Korea already is under international sanctions over its nuclear weapons program, which it sees as a way to fend off any attempt at regime change and provide some leverage with the U.S., South Korea and China in negotiating future aid.
North Korea has for decades tried to make up for its deteriorating conventional war-fighting forces by developing nuclear bombs, ballistic missiles and long-range artillery. In recent years, it has added computer hackers to its list of weapons as Kim charts his own path for the country.
North Korea's approach to the outside world has alternated between bluster and measured steps suggesting openness to negotiation. In November, the regime released two detained Americans who had been sentenced to years of hard labor for committing "hostile" acts.
This week, Kim in his New Year's r speech raised the possibility of a summit with South Korean President Park Geun-hye.
"If South Korea truly wants talks and improvement in relations, the suspended high-level contact can resume and talks on specific matters can also be held," Kim said in a speech that was broadcast on the Internet.
Yet Kim also continues saber rattling. He threatened to conduct the nation's fourth nuclear test, after a United Nations human-rights committee voted in November to hold the regime accountable for crimes against humanity.
The regime test-fired a long-range missile in April 2012, scuttling a deal reached two months earlier for 240,000 metric tons of U.S. food aid in exchange for a moratorium on weapons testing.
Six-nation talks on disarming North Korea's nuclear program have been dormant since December 2008, and the North has since conducted two nuclear tests and a series of missile launches. U.S. military officials also have said they believe the North may now have the ability to miniaturize a nuclear warhead.
Information for this article was contributed by Del Quentin Wilber, John Walcott, Andrew Mayeda and Sam Kim of Bloomberg News; by Michael S. Schmidt and David E. Sanger of The New York Times; and by Josh Lederman of The Associated Press.
A Section on 01/03/2015