[December 19, 2014] While it has been a couple of months since my last comment on North Korea, it doesn’t mean I’m short of topics that relate their senior leadership. In fact, we have been informed that Sony Pictures Entertainment pulled the new movie The Interview due to terror threats through the internet, ostensibly by hackers backed by North Korea.
I know very little about this movie except that it’s centers on a hapless television host who is recruited to assassinate North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un.1 We are being told that North Korean leaders didn’t take a liking to this so they had Sony computers hacked, making distribution of internal documents (film budgets, executive salaries, etc) and made threats to carry out terror attacks on theaters showing the movie. Sony caved quickly by not showing the movie.
There is still doubt about the origin of the hackers. U.S. government experts believe North Korea was behind it. I’m not convinced. Having personal experience with North Korean propaganda and their hyper threats, the current situation would seem out of character. Not that they would want to do this but I think the jury is still out on whether North Korea is the origin of the hackers.
Regardless, there is a secret network of hackers that have the capability to do great damage. Take note, this was the first cyber attack on an organization in the United States that had a significant effect. Terror wins one, Hollywood and American loses one. More needs to be done to protect our computer systems and more needs to be done to track down those guilty and ensure they no longer have that ability.
In the world today, a few people with technical expertise have the ability to impose their desires on millions of people. This is truly a question of freedom and the outlook today is not a good one. Will they take away the voice of Americans?2 I hope not. One Texas theatre is doing their part and is playing Paramount’s 2004 movie Team America: World Police.3 Team America is hilarious and entertaining, making fun of Kim Jong Un’s father.
We will see more of this as America struggles with threats to its freedom. And, I will add with regret, threats that will have the most impact when we lack moral courage.
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[2] Orson Wells told shareholders in 1940 about the pressure from Hitler not to produce or show the movie Citizen Kane. The following quote is from the 1999 movie RKO 281 of Welles struggle to make Citizen Kane: “Good afternoon. Today a man from Germany invaded Greece. He’s already swallowed Poland, Denmark, Norway, and Belgium. He’s bombing London as I speak … Men are dying in Europe now, and Americans soon will be so that we can surmount the tyrants and the dictators. Will you send a message across America that one man can take away our voices?”
[3] http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/texas-theater-show-team-america-759037