North Korean ambassador to the U.N. asks U.S. to prove Pyongyang waged global WannaCry cyberattack

A senior North Korean diplomat has called on the Trump administration to prove that Pyongyang authorized the international WannaCry cyberattack in the wake of Washington officially pointing the finger last week at leader Kim Jong-un’s regime.

Pak Song-Il, North Korea’s United Nations envoy for American affairs, denied responsibility for the WannaCry computer worm and instead accused President Trump’s administration of making a “baseless provocation” used to create an “extremely confrontational atmosphere,” he said in an Associated Press interview Monday evening.

“If they are so sure, show us the evidence,” he told AP.

WannaCry infected computer systems in 150 countries after being unleashed in early May, claiming victims including the U.K. National Health Service and Russia’s central bank, among others.

Mr. Trump’s homeland security adviser, Tom Bossert, blamed WannaCry on North Korea last Tuesday, echoing the same conclusion reached previously by the likes of Microsoft President Brad Smith and the British minister of state for security.

WannaCry “was directed by the government of North Korea,” said Mr. Bossert. “We’re also comfortable in saying that there were actors on their behalf, intermediaries, carrying out this attack, and that they had carried out those types of attacks on behalf of the North Korean government in the past.”

Indeed, the White House attributed WannaCry to North Korea exactly three years to the day after Mr. Trump’s predecessor, former President Barack Obama, publicly blamed Pyongyang for hacking Sony Pictures Entertainment in one of its biggest hacks to date.

“Our first order of business is to try to prevent those attacks from taking place,” Mr. Obama said at the time.

North Korea has been accused of conducting several high-profile cyberattacks in the interim, including breaching a South Korean military contractor and stealing millions of dollars form the Bangladesh central bank, among other operations.