WannaCry Ransomware Outbreak: North Korea Claims The Accused Doesn’t Even Exist

Earlier this month the US Department of Justice (DoJ) charged Jin Hyok Park, a North Korean computer programmer, in connection with major high-profile cybercrimes including the Sony Pictures Entertainment hack and the WannaCry ransomware outbreak that affected hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide.

The Sony hack led to the release of sensitive personal information about employees, while WannaCry, ransomware outbreak exposed data on hundreds of thousands of computers at hospitals, factories, government agencies, banks and other businesses across the globe.

The US officials allege Park as a member of North Korea’s military intelligence outfit the Reconnaissance General Bureau and a suspected member of the hacking group, Lazarus.

Now, North Korea has straightaway denied the charges claiming that the accused person does not even exist. A North Korean Foreign Ministry official said in a statement on Friday that the person named by the US is a “non-entity.”

The official went on to warn that the allegations put forward by the US Justice Department, which he called a smear campaign, could negatively affect the ongoing talks between the two countries after President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s summit in Singapore.

Han Yong Song, a researcher at the North Korean Foreign Ministry’s Institute for American Studies, said in a statement that the act of cybercrimes mentioned by the Justice Department has nothing to do with the country.

He added that the US should seriously consider the possible negative consequences of circulating falsehoods and inciting antagonism against the DPRK that may affect the implementation of the joint statement adopted at the DPRK-US summit.

DPRK stands for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, which is North Korea’s official name.

The North Korean Foreign Ministry official denied in the statement that the country had anything to do with the 2014 Sony incident and WannaCry virus, calling the US charges a “vicious slander and another smear campaign.”

“The US is totally mistaken if it seeks to gain anything from us through preposterous falsehoods and high-handedness,” the statement read.