Q: In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.
Skip Ad Ad Loading... x Embed x Share On the heels of Obama's pointed comments, Sony Pictures Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton gave his first television interview to CNN, saying "We have not caved. We have not given in." VPC 
  
 A billboard for the film "The Interview" is displayed Dec. 19 in Venice, Calif. (Photo: Christopher Polk, Getty Images) 
  
 Calling the U.S. an "ill-famed cesspool of injustice," North Korea accused the Obama administration Sunday of being behind the making of Sony's The Interview and threatened it was already taking "counteraction." 
  
 In a lengthy, rambling statement carried on the state-run Korean Central News Agency, the reclusive nation charged the U.S. government "conceived and produced" the film out of the belief that such movies hurt the dignity of North Korea. 
  
 The statement, attributed to the Policy Department of the National Defense Commission of North Korea, said U.S. government officials "went the lengths of urging the movie makers to keep all scenes insulting the dignity of the (North Korean) supreme leadership in the movie, saying it is needed to 'vex the North Korean government.'" 
  
 The Interview, the Seth Rogen-James Franco comedy, has been the apparent catalyst for the Sony hacking, which resulted in the massive release of that company's internal e-mails and documents. Almost 38 million files were stolen. 
  
 In the movie, the comedians play TV journalists commissioned to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The FBI concluded last week that North Korea was behind the attack, and Obama announced Friday the U.S. would respond "proportionally" to the hackings. 
  
 "I don't think it was an act of war," Obama said in a taped interview on CNN's State of the Union, which aired Sunday. "I think it was an act of cyber vandalism that was very costly, very expensive. We take it very seriously." 
  
 Sony's pulling of the film undermined the principle of free speech, Obama said. 
  
 "We believe in the right of artistic expression and things that powers that be might not like," Obama said. 
  
 On Sunday, North Korea continued to deny it was behind the cyberattack, saying it did not know who the perpetrators are nor where they're from. However, it did praise those responsible, saying "we can surely say they are supporters and sympathizers," of North Korea. 
  
 North Korea also spoke out against Obama's Friday statement, calling his declaration a "disgraceful behavior" and saying North Korea has "already launched the toughest counteraction." 
  
 "Nothing is more serious miscalculation than guessing that just a single movie production company is the target of this counteraction. Our target is all the citadels of the U.S. imperialists who earned the bitterest grudge of all Koreans," the statement says. 
  
 "The army and people of the (North Korea) are fully ready to stand in confrontation with the U.S. in all war spaces including cyber warfare space to blow up those citadels. Our toughest counteraction will be boldly taken against the White House, the Pentagon and the whole U.S. mainland, the cesspool of terrorism, by far surpassing the 'symmetric counteraction' declared by Obama." 
  
 Obama, however, said Sunday the United States is not at cyberwar with North Korea. 
  
 "I don't think it was an act of war," Obama said on CNN's State of the Union. "I think it was an act of cyber vandalism that was very costly, very expensive. We take it very seriously. We will respond proportionately." 
  
 The cyberattack situation escalated early last week when the hackers posted a message threatening 9/11-type attacks on theaters screening The Interview, leading several major movie theater companies announcing they would no longer screen the film. 
  
 Sony pulled The Interview's Dec. 25 nationwide release on Dec. 17, a decision that Obama disparaged in the news conference Friday, saying, "I wish they had spoken to me first. ... I would have told them do not get into a pattern in which you're intimidated by these kinds of criminal attacks." 
  
 North Korea charged Sunday the movie "is an undesirable and reactionary one justifying and inciting terrorism which should not be allowed in any country and any region." It also said it considered Sony's pulling of the movie "fortunate." 
  
 Sunday's statement by North Korea came on the heels of one Saturday in which the nation proposed a joint investigation and promised "grave consequences" if the U.S. did not agree to one. 
  
 "The U.S. should bear in mind that it will face serious consequences in case it rejects our proposal for joint investigation and presses for what it called countermeasures while finding fault" with North Korea. 
  
 The White House has continued to stand behind the FBI's conclusion North Korea is responsible for the attack. 
  
 "The government of North Korea has a long history of denying responsibility for destructive and provocative actions," White House National Security Council spokesman Mark Stroh said Saturday. 
  
 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1AU9YDF ||||| SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea hates the currently scrapped Hollywood film that revolves around the assassination of its beloved leader, but the country has had a long love affair with cinema — of its own particular styling. 
  
 FILE - In this Sept. 22, 2013 file photo, North Koreans ride on an amusement park ride while watching a 3D movie at the Rungna People's Pleasure Park in Pyongyang, North Korea. North Korea hates the Hollywood... (Associated Press) 
  
 FILE - In this June 20, 2013 file photo, movie DVD and VCD disks are arranged on a shelf at a store in Pyongyang, North Korea. North Korea hates the Hollywood film that revolves around the assassination... (Associated Press) 
  
 FILE - In this file image made out of film "Comrade Kim Goes Flying" released on Oct. 3, 2012 by Busan International Film Festival, Comrade Kim Yong Mi played by Han Jong Sim smiles as she wears a coal... (Associated Press) 
  
 In the six decades since North Korea began to cultivate its own film industry, there have been a kidnapped South Korean director and his movie star wife, a Godzilla-inspired monster movie that flopped in the South, American defectors hamming it up in anti-U.S. propaganda films — and even a foray into "girl power" cinema with the more recent "Comrade Kim Goes Flying." 
  
 The U.S. blames North Korea for a cyberattack on Sony Pictures, which produced "The Interview," and also for threats of terror attacks against U.S. movie theaters. Sony canceled the movie's release. North Korea has denied a role in the hack, but also praised it as a "righteous deed." 
  
 Pyongyang began building its cinema industry in the 1950s as a wing of a propaganda machine meant to glorify the country's late founder, Kim Il Sung, the grandfather of current leader Kim Jong Un. The elder Kim once declared movies to be the most important tool to educate the masses, according to archive material maintained by the South Korean government. 
  
 North Korean moviemakers have since dabbled with science fiction, action and romantic comedy, but they're mostly expected to stoke public animosity against rivals Washington and Seoul, and to portray the Kim family as a fearless bastion against evil foreign imperialists. 
  
 North Korea's progress in filmmaking technology has been slow, especially when compared to a South Korean film industry that's the envy of Asia. 
  
 The country's relative isolation means North Korean filmmakers rarely get the opportunity to work with foreign artists. A notable exception was "Comrade Kim goes Flying," a romantic comedy from 2012 about a young female coal miner who dreams of becoming a trapeze artist. The movie was co-produced with Western partners. 
  
 The 1980s were a heyday for North Korean movies. The current leader's father, Kim Jong Il, was an ardent movie buff and ensured generous funding for filmmakers. 
  
 When Kim soured on the quality of films produced by his countrymen, he ordered the abduction of South Korean film director Shin Sang-ok and his then-wife, actress Choi Eun-hee, in 1978, Shin said after he escaped the North in 1986. 
  
 Shin shook the North Korean movie scene with his entertainment-focused works. They included 1984's "Love, Love, My Love," responsible for the first on-screen kiss in North Korean films, and "Runaway," an action film released the same year that included an exploding train, according to a South Korean government website. 
  
 Shin and Choi managed to escape during a business trip to Vienna in 1986, a year after Shin completed "Pulgasari," a science-fiction film inspired by Japan's iconic "Godzilla" series. Pulgasari, which features an actor waddling around in a padded monster suit, flopped when it was released in South Korea in 2000 during a period of warmer relations between the rivals. 
  
 North Korea has long shown American characters in its movies as villains, sometimes played by North Koreans in makeup, but also by actual Americans who defected to the North in the 1960s. Four such Americans appeared together as evil capitalists and military officials in "Nameless Heroes," a 20-part propaganda film series filmed between 1979 and 1981, according to the South Korean government website. ||||| U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (R) delivers remarks as China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi (L) looks on, before their meeting at the State Department in Washington October 1, 2014. 
  
 BEIJING/WASHINGTON China said on Monday it opposed all forms of cyberattacks but there was no proof that North Korea was responsible for the hacking of Sony Pictures, as the United States has said. 
  
 North Korea has denied it was to blame and has vowed to hit back against any U.S. retaliation, threatening the White House and the Pentagon. The hackers said they were incensed by a Sony comedy about a fictional assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, which the studio has pulled. 
  
 China made no reference to calls by the United States for joint action with it and other countries to counter any similar cyberattacks. 
  
 "Before making any conclusions there has to be a full (accounting of) the facts and foundation," foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said. "China will handle it in accordance with relevant international and Chinese laws according to the facts." 
  
 She said Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi "reaffirmed China's relevant position, emphasizing China opposes all forms of cyberattacks and cyber terrorism" in a conversation with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday. 
  
 China is North Korea's only major ally, and would be central to any U.S. efforts to crack down on the isolated state. But the United States has also accused China of cyber spying in the past and a U.S. official has said the attack on Sony could have used Chinese servers to mask its origin. 
  
 South Korea, which is still technically at war with North Korea, said computer systems at its nuclear plant operator had been hacked and non-critical data stolen, but there was no risk to nuclear installations or reactors. 
  
 "It's our judgment that the control system itself is designed in such a way and there is no risk whatsoever," Chung Yang-ho, deputy energy minister, told Reuters by telephone. 
  
 He made no mention of North Korea and could not verify messages posted by a Twitter user claiming responsibility for the attacks and demanding the shutdown of three aging nuclear reactors by Thursday. 
  
 U.S. President Barack Obama and his advisers are weighing how to punish North Korea after the FBI concluded on Friday it was responsible for the attack on Sony. 
  
 It was the first time the United States had directly accused another country of a cyberattack of such magnitude on American soil and set up the possibility of a new confrontation between Washington and Pyongyang. 
  
 "SYMMETRIC COUNTERACTION" 
  
 North Korea's state news agency said it did not know who had hacked Sony Pictures. 
  
 "We do not know who or where they are but we can surely say that they are supporters and sympathizers with the DPRK," the KCNA news agency said. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea is the North's official name. 
  
 "Our toughest counteraction will be boldly taken against the White House, the Pentagon and the whole U.S. mainland, the cesspool of terrorism, by far surpassing the 'symmetric counteraction' declared by Obama," it said in a typically aggressive commentary. 
  
 Japan, one of Washington's closest Asian allies, said it strongly condemned the attack on Sony, but also stopped short of blaming North Korea. 
  
 "Japan is maintaining close contact with the United States and supporting their handling of this case," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference. 
  
 He did not answer when asked if Japan was convinced North Korea was behind the cyber attack, but repeated that he saw no effect on talks with North Korea over the fate of Japanese citizens abducted by Pyongyang agents decades ago. 
  
 Obama put the hack in the context of a crime. 
  
 "No, I don't think it was an act of war," he told CNN's "State of the Union" show that aired on Sunday. "I think it was an act of cyber vandalism that was very costly, very expensive. We take it very seriously. We will respond proportionately." 
  
 The hack attack and subsequent threats of violence against theaters prompted Sony to withdraw the comedy, "The Interview," which had been due for release during the holiday season. 
  
 Republican Senator John McCain disagreed with Obama, telling CNN the attack was the manifestation of a new kind of warfare. 
  
 Republican Representative Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, would not call the hacking an act of war. But he did criticize Obama for embarking on a two-week vacation in Hawaii on Friday without responding to the attack. 
  
 "You've just limited your ability to do something," Rogers said. 
  
 "I would argue you're going to have to ramp up sanctions. It needs to be very serious. Remember - a nation-state was threatening violence." 
  
 (Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in Beijing; Doina Chiacu and Diane Bartz in Washington; and; Linda Sieg, Tetsushi Kajimoto and Kiyoshi Takenaka in Tokyo; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan) |||||
A:
North Korea's call for a joint investigation with the US into the Sony hack may have sounded unusually reasonable, but a statement issued last night is full of the bluster more normally associated with Pyongyang. The statement in state-run media accused the US of being behind the making of The Interview, accused President Obama of "recklessly" spreading rumors about the source of the hack, and said the country's army of 1.2 million was ready to strike back, reports USA Today. The "toughest counteraction will be boldly taken against the White House, the Pentagon, and the whole US mainland, the cesspool of terrorism, by far surpassing the 'symmetric counteraction' declared by Obama," the statement said. In an interview yesterday, President Obama said that the US is considering putting North Korea back on the list of state sponsors of terror. China, meanwhile, has issued a statement saying it "opposes all forms of cyberattacks," but not mentioning North Korea or the Sony hack, reports Reuters. Pyongyang says The Interview is an "undesirable and reactionary" movie and it's glad Sony decided to cancel its release. But while North Korea doesn't like the way it's depicted in Western films, the history of North Korean cinema is full of American villains, sometimes with real American defectors playing the roles of evil capitalists or bloodthirsty military officials, the AP reports.