“North Korea’s already tenuous links to the Internet went completely dark on Monday after days of instability, in what Internet monitors described as one of the worst North Korean network failures in years,” the New York Times reports.

“The loss of service came just days after President Obama pledged that the United States would launch a ‘proportional response’ to the recent attacks on Sony Pictures, which government officials have linked to North Korea. While an attack on North Korea’s networks was suspected, there was no definitive evidence of it.”

“The loss of service is not likely to affect the vast majority of North Koreans, who have no access to the Internet. The biggest impact would be felt by the country’s elite, state-run media channels and its propagandists, as well as its cadre of cyberwarriors.”

The AP reports the White House declined to comment.

[speech_bubble type=”std” subtype=”a” icon=”pwdome.jpg” name=””]Of course, the most effective U.S. retaliation would be to open up the Internet to the North Korean people.  [/speech_bubble]

 

“Warning of ‘serious consequences’ if the United States retaliates against it over the damaging cyberattack on Sony Pictures, North Korea on Saturday insisted that it was not behind it, and it offered to prove its innocence by taking part in a joint investigation with Washington to identify the hackers,” the New York Times reports.

Said a North Korea spokesman: “We have a way to prove that we have nothing to do with the case without resorting to torture, as what the C.I.A. does.”