Here are three things to know about new US sanctions against North Korea over a cyberattack on Sony Pictures, whose movie depicting the fictional assassination of North Korea’s leader has infuriated Pyongyang, which denies responsibility for the cyberattack:
North’s reaction aimed at domestic audience as well as US
Pyongyang’s rhetoric over the weekend criticising the sanctions, which included a vow that the new measures and America’s “inveterate repugnancy and hostility” would not weaken the North’s 1.2-million-strong military, is probably directed as much at a domestic audience as it is at Washington.
New sanctions unlikely to affect North Korea very much
The new measures are unlikely to make much of a difference in North Korea, which has been bombarded by sanctions for decades and has woven an obsession with self-reliance into its national psyche.
Some analysts say Washington and others have the ability, should they choose, to apply more severe financial measures to hurt the North’s leadership. But many others point out that a raft of multilateral penalties from the United Nations, as well as national sanctions from Washington, Tokyo and others meant to punish the government and sidetrack its nuclear ambitions, have done nothing to derail Pyongyang’s pursuit of a nuclear tipped missile that could reach America’s mainland.
Recent efforts to improve
North-South ties seem safe
The measures probably won’t hurt recent efforts to improve ties between the rival Koreas.
North and South Korea have been at each other’s throats since the Korean Peninsula was divided at the end of World War II into a US-backed capitalist south and a Soviet-backed communist north.
In the decades since they were founded in 1948, the Koreas have established elaborate patterns of communicating their intentions toward each other, even as they trade bombastic rhetoric and threats.