President Obama Sanctions North Korea After Sony Cyberattack

Alex Wong/Getty Images News/Thinkstock(HONOLULU) — President Obama has signed an executive order imposing new sanctions on North Korea following last month’s cyber-attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment.

In issuing the order on Friday, Obama accuses North Korea of “destructive, coercive cyber-related actions during November and December,” calling them a “continuing threat to the national security, foreign policy and economy of the United States.”

Before leaving for his Hawaii vacation, the president had said he would respond to the attack “proportionally” in a time and manner of his choosing. Friday’s action is “the first aspect of our response,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said in a statement.

The order authorizes the Treasury Department to shutdown access to the U.S. financial system, prohibiting transactions and freezing assets, for specific officials and entities of the DPRK and anyone who supports them.

The Obama administration has identified more than a dozen targets of the sanctions — three North Korean agencies and ten individuals — including the country’s primary intelligence agency that the administration believes runs their “major cyber operations.” Notably, several of the individuals are identified as working in Russia, China, Syria and Namibia, making them potentially difficult to hit.

“The order is not targeted at the people of North Korea, but rather is aimed at the Government of North Korea and its activities that threaten the United States and others,” Obama wrote in a letter to House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell notifying them of the action.

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