North Korea calls for joint investigation with U.S. into cyberattack against Sony

North Korea on Saturday proposed a joint investigation with the U.S. into the hacking of Sony Pictures Entertainment, warning of “serious” consequences if Washington rejects a probe that Pyongyang says will prove it had nothing to do with the cyberattack.

U.S. officials blame North Korea for the hacking, citing the tools used in the Sony attack and previous hacks linked to the North, and have vowed a response. The break-in resulted in the disclosure of tens of thousands of confidential Sony emails and business files, and escalated to terrorist threats that caused Sony to cancel the Christmas Day release of the movie “The Interview.” The comedy is about a plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un. On Saturday, an unidentified Foreign Ministry spokesman in Pyongyang said North Korea knows how to prove it’s not responsible for the hacking, saying Washington is slandering Pyongyang by spreading unfounded rumors.

“The U.S. should bear in mind that it will face serious consequences in case it rejects our proposal for joint investigation and presses for what it called countermeasures while finding fault with” North Korea, the spokesman said in a statement carried by Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency, or KCNA.

“We have a way to prove that we have nothing to do with the case without resorting to torture, as what the CIA does,” he said, adding that the U.S. lacks any specific evidence tying North Korea to the hacking.

A spokesman for the White House National Security Council rejected North Korea’s proposal of a joint investigation.