N. Korea asks U.S. to lift all sanctions

SEOUL, Jan. 8 (Yonhap) -- North Korea called on the United States Thursday to lift its sanctions against the communist country, disavowing again its connection with a hacking attack on Sony Pictures.

The demand from Pyongyang came one week after the U.S. signed an executive order authorizing additional sanctions on top of those imposed on the North for its three nuclear tests and several missile launches.

Three North Korean entities and 10 officials were newly named in the U.S. sanctions list in retaliation for the communist country's alleged hack on Sony Pictures, the U.S. distributor of the film "The Interview" that involves a plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

"The U.S. should lift all unreasonable sanctions against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) in all fields," the policy department of the North's National Defense Commission (NDC) said in a statement, carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

The newly imposed sanctions are based on the "inveterate hostility and repugnancy" toward North Korea, the statement said, denying the country's responsibility for the Sony hack.

The sanctions were imposed "without any sure ground," the NDC said, also threatening a military action against the U.S.

"The U.S. should roll back its hostile policy toward the DPRK of its own accord if it does not want to suffer a war disaster," according to the statement.

"We have already declared the toughest counteraction against the outrageous hostile acts the U.S. has perpetrated against the DPRK ... it has never experienced a hail of bullets and shells on its own territory," it said.

The FBI determined earlier that North Korea was behind the hack on Sony, confirming widespread suspicions pointing to the North, which has expressed strong anger at "The Interview."

   pbr@yna.co.kr

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