Obama promises revenge on North Korea after Sony cyberattack

Following the FBI's public announcement that North Korean hackers were behind the cyberattack on Sony Pictures, President Obama has vowed that America would hit back against the Communist state.

The cyberattack was due to Sony's plans to release the comedy film The Interview. Starring James Franco and Seth Rogan, as two journalists, who are given the task to assassinate the North Korean dictator, Kim Jong Un, the film's subsequent release were cancelled.

President Obama announced that Sony Pictures had made a mistake in cancelling the film's release. The US president criticised Sony Pictures for taking a weak stand against North Korea.

In a short statement, Obama said: "We can't have a society in which some dictator some place can start imposing censorship here in the United States."

Whilst Mr Obama did not go as far as promising to launch a retaliatory cyberattack on Pyongyang, the American president did declare that the US would exact revenge "at a place and time and manner that we choose".

Obama's plans to carry out revenge on North Korea remains unknown. Today a Pentagon spokesman announced: "I'm not able to lay out what would or wouldn't be an act of war in the cyberdomain."

Obama defiantly insisted that it had not been an ordinary cyberattack: "Though the FBI has seen a wide variety and increasing number of cyber-intrusions, the destructive nature of this attack, coupled with its coercive nature, sets it apart."

Yesterday, the FBI confirmed that North Korean hackers were behind the Sony Picture leak.

In a statement the security services announced: "North Korea's actions were intended to inflict significant harm on a US business and suppress the right of American citizens to express themselves. Such acts of intimidation fall outside the bounds of acceptable state behaviour."