The Interview: North Korea slams Barack Obama for movie release

North Korea has berated President Barack Obama over the release of The Interview movie in the US.

The Interview is about a fictional plot to kill North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

North Korea’s National Defense Commission (NDC) also accused the US of shutting down the country’s internet – and used a racial slur to describe the “reckless” Barack Obama.

Sony Pictures had originally pulled The Interview after a cyber-attack and threats.

The company later reconsidered, releasing the comedy on Christmas Day.

A number of critics – including President Barack Obama – had warned that freedom of expression was under threat if the movie was shelved.

The controversial film was shown in some US cinemas and online, with several hundred independent theaters coming forward and offering to show the film. However, larger cinemas decided not screen it.

Kim Jong-un’s potential difficulty is that The Interview – which casts the North Korean leader as a malign, vain buffoon – has been widely reviewed as funny and astute.

In a statement on Saturday, an NDC spokesman denounced the US for screening the “dishonest and reactionary movie hurting the dignity of the supreme leadership of the DPRK [North Korea] and agitating terrorism”.

President Barack Obama, the statement said, “is the chief culprit who forced the Sony Pictures Entertainment to indiscriminately distribute the movie”, blackmailing cinemas in the US.

It added: “Obama always goes reckless in words and deeds like a monkey in a tropical forest.”

The NDC also accused also Washington of “groundlessly linking the unheard of hacking at the Sony Pictures Entertainment to the DPRK”.

Sony Pictures had initially pulled the film after suffering an unprecedented hacking attack at the hands of a group calling itself the Guardians of Peace.

The hackers also threatened to carry out a terrorist attack on cinemas showed the film on its scheduled release date of Christmas Day.

Last week, the FBI said its analysis pointed the finger at North Korea. However, many cyber-security experts have come forward to dispute this assertion.

At the time, North Korea denied being behind the attack but described it as a “righteous deed”.

North Korea subsequently suffered a severe internet outage.