California Rep. Ed Royce has called for new sanctions on North Korea after federal officials linked the regime to the hack attack on Sony Pictures.
A Republican, Royce told host Hugh Hewitt on his radio show that the United States must respond to the brazen attack over the controversial movie "The Interview," according to
Mediaite.
Royce, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said that the U.S. should place economic restrictions on North Korea that will keep financial institutions from wanting to do business with the country.
"When you freeze the accounts at the banks, and you tell the institutions you’re either going to do business with the United States or you’re going to do business with North Korea, they all make the decision, OK, we’ll freeze the account," he said.
Royce said that the U.S. had successfully used economic sanctions against the dictatorship in the past, when North Korea had attempted to flood the market with counterfeit $100 bills.
In this case, unidentified
hackers called "Guardians of the Peace" had demanded that Sony cancel its upcoming release of "The Interview," a comedy starring Seth Rogen and James Franco that included a gruesome scene depicting the assassination of North Korea's leader Kim Jung-Un, with his head being blown up.
Sony canceled the Dec. 25 release on Wednesday, citing the threats of violence against movie theaters, and the movie studio later said there were
no further plans to release the film.
Royce noted that North Korea had shown that it was able to "access our energy grid and other infrastructure." And he said he’s planning to introduce legislation in the House that will punish the country in retribution for the hack attack.
"I think it is necessary to respond because the attack on Sony demonstrates a vulnerability that the FBI has told us exists with 90 percent of our firms," he told Hewitt.
"At this point we have to do two things. One is react by showing there is a cost of this kind of assault to the United States … and second we have to go forward with cyber infrastructure security.
"There is much more to do on this front."
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