World

SEOUL — Key North Korean websites were back online Tuesday after a nearly 10-hour shutdown that followed a US vow to respond to a crippling cyber attack on Sony Pictures that Washington blames on Pyongyang.

It wasn't immediately clear what caused the Internet stoppage in one of the least-wired and poorest countries in the world, but outside experts said it could be anything from a cyber attack to a simple power failure. The White House and the State Department declined to say whether the US government was responsible.

Even if a cyber attack had caused the shutdown, analysts said, it would largely be symbolic since only a tiny number of North Koreans are allowed on the Internet — a fraction of Pyongyang's staunchly loyal elite, as well as foreigners.

Though it denies responsibility for the Sony hack, North Korea's government has called it a "righteous deed" and made clear its fury over Sony's film "The Interview", a comedy that depicts the assassination of the North's authoritarian leader, Kim Jong-un, the head of a 1.2 million-man army and the focus of an intense cult of personality.

South Korean officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of office rules, said the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) and the Rodong Sinmun newspaper, which are the main channels for official North Korean news, had both gone down. But the websites were back up later Tuesday. Among the posts glorifying the ruling Kim family included one about Jong-un visiting a catfish farm.

US computer experts described the Internet outage in the North as sweeping and progressively worse. Jim Cowie, chief scientist at Dyn Research, an Internet performance company, said in an online post that the North came back online after a 9 ½-hour outage.

Possible causes for the shutdown include an external attack on its fragile network or even just power problems, Cowie wrote. But, he added: "We can only guess."

The outage was probably more inconvenient to foreigners, who can access the Internet through 3G networks, than to North Korean residents, most of whom have never gone online. There are only about 1,000 Internet Protocol addresses in North Korea for a population of 25 million, South Korean analysts say. The privileged are also allowed to view a self-contained domestic Intranet that carries state media propaganda and a limited amount of information pulled and censored from the real Internet.

North Korea did not immediately release a response to the shutdown. But a commentary carried in state media Tuesday was filled with characteristic rhetoric, criticising what it called a failed US policy on Pyongyang and comparing the United States to the Roman Empire, which, it said, "was thrown into a dumping ground of history as it collapsed while seeking prosperity through aggression and war".

Last year, North Korea suffered similar brief Internet shutdowns of websites at a time of nuclear tensions with the US, South Korea and other countries. North Korea blamed Seoul and Washington for the outages.

President Barack Obama has said the US government expects to respond to the Sony hack, which he described as an expensive act of "cyber vandalism" by North Korea.

Obama did not discuss details, and it was not immediately clear whether the Internet connectivity problems represented the retribution. The US government regards its offensive cyber operations as highly classified.

US options for acting against North Korea are limited. Although some analysts believe there are more severe financial measures that can be taken by Washington, the country already faces massive international and US sanctions over its repeated nuclear and rocket tests.

The hack has been a nightmare for Sony, which cancelled plans to release "The Interview" after a group of hackers made threats against theaters that planned to show it.

North Korea has promoted the development of science and technology as a means of improving its moribund economy.

More than a million people use mobile phones in North Korea. The network covers most major cities, but users cannot call outside the country or receive calls from outside. The North's Intranet gives access to government-sanctioned sites and works with its own browsers, search engine and e-mail programmes, according to South Korea's unification ministry.

PARIS — French Prime Minister Manuel Valls stepped-up security nationwide Tuesday following three successive, apparently unrelated attacks that left one man dead, in a bid to ease growing unease in the country.

While the motives behind the incidents — a knife attack on police and two car rampages onto passersby — remain unclear, the violence has jarred nerves after repeated jihadist calls for "lone wolf" action in France over its fight against Islamic extremism.

Valls stressed that the three incidents were "distinct", urging the French to keep calm while stressing security would be heightened.

"Two hundred to 300 extra soldiers will be deployed in the coming hours" on top of 780 forces already mobilised, he said live on television.

Security patrols will also be increased in shopping areas, city centres, stations and on public transport, he added.

The violence began on Saturday when a man was shot dead after attempting to enter a police station in the central town of Joue-les-Tours while shouting "Allahu Akbar" and attacking three officers with a knife, two of whom were seriously injured.

Then on Sunday evening, a driver ploughed into pedestrians in Dijon in the east, injuring 13 people and also shouting the same Islamic phrase which means "God is greater" and has in the past been used by extremists when waging violent attacks.

And on Monday night, another man rammed into a bustling Christmas market with his car in the western city of Nantes, injuring 10 people before stabbing himself repeatedly and being arrested.

A 25-year-old man later died of injuries sustained in the attack, local prosecutor Brigitte Lamy said Tuesday, adding the injured assailant was not yet fit to be questioned.

Don't 'give in to fear' 

The attacks both differ widely and present disturbing similarities, and Valls acknowledged there could be a copycat effect.

"Unbalanced individuals can act. They can be receptive to or influenced by propaganda messages or the power of images," he said.

Authorities have for months been on tenterhooks over the threat of violence inspired by Islamic extremism.

In September, the radical Islamic State group that controls swathes of Iraq and Syria urged Muslims around the world to kill "in any manner" those from countries involved in a coalition fighting its jihadists, singling out the French.

Among instructions detailing how to kill civilians or military personnel was to "run him over with your car".

But while the probe into Saturday's attack is veering towards extremism — the Burundian convert to Islam who assaulted police had posted an Islamic State flag on his Facebook page — the car rampages appear to have been committed by unstable people.

Both prosecutors in charge of probing these incidents insisted they were not "terrorist acts".

The assailant in Dijon, for instance, had been to psychiatric hospitals 157 times, local prosecutor Marie-Christine Tarrare told reporters.

She said the 40-year-old told police that he ploughed into people due to a sudden "outburst of empathy for the children of Chechnya" and had shouted "Allahu Akbar" to give him courage.

Lamy, meanwhile said the attacker in Nantes, 37, did not appear to have a history of psychiatric problems although his mental state had deteriorated over the past few weeks.

"We must not panic, lump things together, give in to fear," warned President Francois Hollande on a trip to overseas French territory Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon.

Minimising risk? 

Nevertheless, the government faced criticism Tuesday that it was minimising the threat, at a time when more than 1,000 nationals are thought to be involved in jihad on home soil, or in Syria and Iraq.

Saturday's assailant Bertrand Nzohabonayo, 20, was not on a domestic intelligence watch-list but his brother Brice is well known for his radical views and was arrested in Burundi soon after the incident.

Nzohabonayo's mother had also told authorities last year that she was worried about Brice's radicalisation and "the influence he could have on his brother Bertrand", said Paris prosecutor Francois Molins, whose office is in charge of the probe.

The assailant in Dijon, meanwhile, had taken an interest in religion and started wearing a djellaba — a long robe worn in Muslim countries — just a week ago, according to his mother.

UNITED NATIONS — An angry North Korea, now on the defensive over a US accusation of hacking, is refusing to take part in a groundbreaking UN Security Council meeting Monday where the country’s bleak human rights situation will be discussed for the first time.

International pressure has built this year on Pyongyang after a sprawling UN-backed inquiry of alleged crimes against humanity and warned that young leader Kim Jong-un could be held accountable. And attention has focused on the North in recent days, as the Obama administration on Friday blamed it for the devastating hacking attack on Sony over the film “The Interview”, which portrays Kim’s assassination.

Now the 15-member Security Council is being urged to refer North Korea’s human rights situation to the International Criminal Court, seen as a court of last resort for atrocities. It’s the boldest effort yet to confront Pyongyang over an issue it has openly disdained in the past.

Instead of a showdown, North Korea says it will not attend Monday’s meeting. It accuses the United States and its allies of using the human rights issue as a weapon to overthrow the leadership of the impoverished but nuclear-armed nation. It also calls the dozens of people who fled the North and aided the commission of inquiry “human scum”.

If the council takes any action, “maybe we will take necessary measures”, diplomat Kim Song told The Associated Press on Friday. He did not give details.

North Korea already sent a sharp warning last month, threatening further nuclear tests after the UN General Assembly’s human rights committee voted to move the issue toward the Security Council, which can take binding actions on matters of international peace and security.

The council has had North Korea’s nuclear programme on its agenda for years, but Monday’s meeting opens the door to wider discussion of abuses alleged in the recent inquiry, including starvation and a harsh political prison camp system of up to 120,000 inmates. Pyongyang rejects the inquiry’s findings but never allowed it into the country.

Two-thirds of the Security Council this month formally requested that North Korea’s human rights situation be placed on the agenda for ongoing debate, saying rights violations “threaten to have a destabilising impact on the region”.

China and its veto power as a permanent council member could block any action against its traditional but troublesome ally, but the mere threat of damage to Kim Jong-un’s image has outraged the North Korean government.

Such fury is thought to be behind the Sony hacking. North Korea has denied the attack but has suggested it was a “righteous deed” carried out by sympathisers.

Sony last week cancelled the Christmas Day release of “The Interview”, setting off alarm among some diplomats and entertainment figures who warned of setting a precedent for backing down in the face of future threats. The hacking is expected to be discussed in Monday’s meeting.

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan plans to execute around 500 militants in coming weeks, officials said Monday, after the government lifted a moratorium on the death penalty in terror cases following a Taliban school massacre.

Six militants have been hanged since Friday amid rising public anger over Tuesday’s slaughter in the northwestern city of Peshawar, which left 149 people dead including 133 children.

After the deadliest terror attack in Pakistani history, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ended the six-year moratorium on the death penalty, reinstating it for terrorism-related cases.

“Interior ministry has finalised the cases of 500 convicts who have exhausted all the appeals, their mercy petitions have been turned down by the president and their executions will take place in coming weeks,” a senior government official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

A second official confirmed the information.

Of the six hanged so far, five were involved in a failed attempt to assassinate then military ruler Pervez Musharraf in 2003, while one was involved in a 2009 attack on army headquarters.

In Karachi, the Sindh high court suspended the death warrants of two terror convicts just a day before they were due to go to the gallows.

“The Sindh high court suspended the death warrants of two terrorists today,” additional advocate general, Mustafa Mehsar, told AFP.

Defence attorney, Abdul Razaq, confirmed the news. 

“We had filed a petition in the Sindh high court and the second review petition is pending in the superior courts and till the decision of the petition, the death penalty could not be implemented,” Razaq told AFP.

Both the accused were sentenced to death in July 2004 for killing a doctor in Karachi in July 2001.

Wrath at Khan

Cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, whose Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) Party leads the government in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, of which Peshawar is the capital, faced tough questions Monday from the relatives of those killed.

Angry parents accused PTI of neglecting its duties in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in favour of months of protests in Islamabad aimed at bringing down the national government.

Shahabuddin, the father of one student killed in the attack, told Khan: “We had voted for you to bring about a change, but you gave us nothing but politics of dharna [sit-in protest].”

Police, troops and paramilitary rangers were deployed across the country and airports and prisons put on red alert during the executions and as troops intensify operations against Taliban militants.

Sharif has ordered the attorney general’s office to “actively pursue” capital cases currently in the courts, a government spokesman said.

The “prime minister has also issued directions for appropriate measures for early disposal of pending cases related to terrorism”, the spokesman said, without specifically confirming the plan to execute 500 people.

Pakistan has described Tuesday’s bloody school rampage, claimed by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), as its own “mini 9/11”, calling it a game-changer in the fight against extremism.

Political and military leaders vowed to redouble efforts to stamp out the scourge of terror in the wake of the attack, which the TTP said was revenge for the killing of their families in an army offensive in the tribal northwest.

The offensive against longstanding Taliban and other militant strongholds in North Waziristan and Khyber tribal agencies has been going on since June.

But a series of fresh strikes since the Peshawar attack, in which dozens of alleged militants were killed, suggest the campaign is being stepped up.

Adding to an outcry by rights groups, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights HH Prince Zeid on Monday called on Pakistan to re-impose the moratorium.

“The crime rate, historically, is not lowered by the imposition of capital punishment,” he said, calling the resumption of executions “very unfortunate”.

Pakistan began its de facto moratorium on civilian executions in 2008, but hanging remains on the statute books and judges continue to pass death sentences.

Before Friday’s resumption, only one person had been executed since 2008 — a soldier convicted by a court martial and hanged in November 2012.

Rights campaigners say Pakistan overuses its anti-terror laws and courts to prosecute ordinary crimes.

NEW YORK — A gunman shot dead two New York City police officers in what officials called an “assassination”, hours after warning on social media that he planned an attack in retribution for recent US police killings of unarmed black men.

Mayor Bill de Blasio on Sunday ordered flags flown at half staff around the city, hours after the city’s main police union harshly criticised the city’s first Democratic mayor in two decades for being insufficiently supportive of the department during recent waves of anti-police violence.

The shooter, 28-year-old Ismaaiyl Abdula Brinsley, travelled from Baltimore, where police said he had shot and killed his girlfriend, to New York and during the day posted on the social media service Instagram that he would be “putting wings on pigs today”, using an anti-police slur.

Baltimore police said they learned of the suspect’s posts on Saturday afternoon and called NYPD officials to alert them that digital data showed he had travelled to the city’s borough of Brooklyn. But the call came in less than an hour before officials said Brinsley, who was black, shot and killed two officers as they sat in their patrol car near a major housing project.

The officers he killed were Hispanic and Asian-American.

“Although we’re still learning the details, it’s clear that this was an assassination, that these officers were shot execution style,” said de Blasio, who campaigned on a promise to improve relations between the nation’s largest police force and minority communities.

The two New York City Police Department officers, Rafael Ramos, 40, and Wenjian Liu, 32, had no time to react when Brinsley appeared next to their vehicle, took a shooter’s stance and shot both officers with a silver semi-automatic handgun, said NYPD Police Commissioner William Bratton.

Brinsley fled to a nearby subway station where he shot himself in the head and died, Bratton added.

The attack, the first fatal shooting of an NYPD officer since 2011, follows weeks of sometimes violent protests around the United States over a pair of incidents in which white police officers shot and killed unarmed black men. In July, a police officer in New York’s Staten Island borough killed Eric Garner, a father of six, while trying to arrest him for illegally selling cigarettes.

In August, a police officer in the St Louis suburb of Ferguson, Missouri, shot and killed a 18-year-old Michael Brown after an argument that began while Brown was walking in the middle of the street on a residential block after allegedly stealing a box of cigarillos from a convenience store.

Brinsley cited both cases in the Instagram post in which he threatened police, saying “they take one of ours... let’s take two of theirs.”

President Barack Obama condemned the killings, saying “two brave men won’t be going home to their loved ones tonight”. Attorney General Eric Holder promised the support of the Justice Department throughout the investigation.

Leaders of recent anti-police protests, including longtime New York civil rights activist Reverend Al Sharpton, also condemned the attack.

Bratton said investigators were checking whether Brinsley had attended any of the recent protests.

The killings also revealed bitter anger among some police towards New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who they see as not being supportive in the face of public anger.

Several officers turned their backs on de Blasio when he arrived at the Brooklyn hospital where the two officers were taken after they were shot, video showed.

Patrick Lynch, head of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, the country’s largest municipal police union, said: “There’s blood on many hands tonight... That blood on the hands starts on the steps of City Hall in the office of the mayor.”

It was unclear why the gunman chose Brooklyn.

Authorities said Brinsley, who previously lived in Georgia, had shot and wounded his girlfriend in Baltimore early Saturday morning before heading north to New York City.

HONOLULU — President Barack Obama says the United States is reviewing whether to put North Korea back on its list of state sponsors of terrorism as Washington decides how to respond to what he calls an “act of cyber vandalism”, not one of war, against a movie company.

Sony Pictures Entertainment, which said it cancelled the theatrical release of “The Interview” after distributors refused to show it, pledged to find a way to get the film out. “How it’s going to be distributed, I don’t think anybody knows quite yet,” a Sony lawyer said. The comedy involves a plot to assassinate North Korea’s leader.

Obama is promising to respond “proportionately” to an attack that law enforcement blames on North Korea. “We’re not going to be intimidated by some cyber hackers,” he said.

The president said the US would examine the facts to determine whether North Korea should land back on the terrorism sponsors list.

“We’re going to review those through a process that’s already in place,” Obama told CNN’s “State of the Union” in an interview broadcast Sunday. “I’ll wait to review what the findings are.”

While raising the possibility of a terrorism designation, Obama also asserted, “I don’t think it was an act of war. I think it was an act of cyber vandalism that was very costly, very expensive. We take it very seriously”.

Obama’s description drew immediate scorn from two Republicans who are longtime critics of his foreign policy.

“It is a new form of warfare, and we have to counter with that form of warfare with a better form of warfare,” said Arizona Sen. John McCain.

Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina called it “an act of terrorism” and favoured reimposing sanctions and adding North Korea to the terrorism list. The US needs to “make is so hard on the North Koreans that they don’t want to do this in the future”.

North Korea spent two decades on the list until the Bush administration removed it in 2008 during nuclear negotiations. Only Iran, Sudan, Syria and Cuba remain on the list, which triggers sanctions that limit US aid, defence exports and certain financial transactions.

But adding North Korea back could be difficult. To meet the criteria, the State Department must determine that a country has repeatedly supported acts of international terrorism, a definition that traditionally has referred to violent, physical attacks rather than hacking.

North Korea threatened to strike back at the United States if Obama retaliated, the National Defence Commission said in a statement carried by the country’s official Korean Central News Agency. The statement offered no details of a possible response.

The US is asking China for help as it considers how to respond to the hack. A senior Obama administration official says the US and China have shared information about the attack and that Washington has asked for Beijing’s cooperation.

The official was not authorised to comment by name and spoke on condition of anonymity.

China wields considerable leverage over North Korea, but Obama has accused China of carrying out cyber thefts, too.

In the CNN interview, taped Friday in Washington before Obama left to vacation in Hawaii, Obama renewed his criticism of Sony’s decision to shelve “The Interview”, despite the company’s insistence that its hand was forced after movie theatres refused to show it.

Obama suggested he might have been able to help address the problem if given the chance. “You know, had they talked to me directly about this decision, I might have called the movie theatre chains and distributors and asked them what that story was,” he said.

Sony’s CEO has disputed that the company never reached out, saying he spoke to a senior White House adviser about the situation before Sony announced the decision. White House officials said Sony did discuss cyber security with the federal government, but that the White House was never consulted on the decision not to distribute the film.

“Sometimes this is a matter of setting a tone and being very clear that we’re not going to be intimidated by some, you know, cyber hackers,” Obama said. “And I expect all of us to remember that and operate on that basis going forward.”

David Boies, a Sony lawyer, said “The Interview” is “going to be distributed, and what Sony has been trying to do is to get the picture out to the public”, while protecting the rights of company employers and moviegoers.

Boies said theatres “quite understandably” decided not to show the film as scheduled because of the threats. “You can’t release a movie unless you have a distribution channel,” he said.

North Korea has denied hacking the studio, and on Saturday proposed a joint investigation with the US to determine the true culprit. The White House rejected the idea and said it was confident North Korea was responsible.

But the next decision — how to respond — is hanging over the president as he vacations with his family in Hawaii.

Obama’s options are limited. The US already has trade penalties in place and there is no appetite for military action.

“I think we’ve got to recognise that this is not a Sony security problem. This is a national security problem,” Boies said.

Boies appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press”, Graham was on CBS’ “Face the Nation” and McCain spoke on CNN.

MACAU — Chinese President Xi Jinping warned Hong Kong and Macau on Saturday to remember they are part of "one China", as pro-democracy campaigners in both semi-autonomous territories call for free leadership elections.

Dozens of protesters marched through Macau's historic centre Saturday afternoon as Xi wrapped up his two-day visit to mark the 15th anniversary of the handover from Portugal — just days after police cleared the last remaining protest sites in neighbouring Hong Kong.

Residents of all ages walked in the middle of the road through the historic district shouting: "We want universal suffrage" through megaphones, some wrapped in banners and others with slogans painted across their faces.

"I am uncertain about Macau's future, so we have to come out to make noise for ourselves," said Mark Pang, a 15-year-old high school student who held up an open yellow umbrella — the symbol of the Hong Kong democracy movement.

The protest march culminated in a public square where around 100 demonstrators remained in the early evening, though some bystanders were confused by the scene.

"Are these people from Hong Kong?" asked one.

Xi warned both territories against a "misguided approach" in a speech Saturday.

"We must both adhere to the 'one China' principle and respect the difference of the two systems," Xi said at the inauguration of Macau's chief executive Fernando Chui, who was selected for a second term by a pro-Beijing committee in August.

"At no time should we focus only on one side to the neglect of the other. This is the only way leading to sound and steady progress. Otherwise a misguided approach from the beginning, just like putting one's left foot into the right shoe, would lead us to nowhere," Xi said.

He also warned against "external infiltration and interference" to safeguard the stability of Macau. Beijing has accused foreign forces of stirring up the Hong Kong protests.

Security was tight during the trip, with reporters on the airport tarmac waiting for Xi's arrival Friday not allowed to hold umbrellas and handed raincoats instead.

There were also reports that some visitors and journalists from Hong Kong were denied entry after being told their names were on a blacklist.

'Escalate actions' 

Both Macau and Hong Kong enjoy freedoms unseen on the mainland — but their leaders are selected by a loyalist committee.

"In the light of Hong Kong's umbrella movement, I think Macau people should escalate our actions for democracy," local protest leader Jason Chao told AFP.

"We need a democratic political system in which the citizens can hold the officials accountable," Chao said, adding that despite a huge economic boom in the gambling enclave in the past decade, the quality of life for citizens has been on the decline, with government officials seen as too close to big business.

Similar discontent over corruption and social inequality partly underpins the Hong Kong movement.

Though Macau's democracy movement is not on the scale of Hong Kong's, the territory saw its largest ever protest in May over proposed cash benefits for retired Macau officials, with 20,000 people taking part.

Xi gave his backing to Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying, who he met in Macau on Friday, pledging "full trust" in him following the clearance of the protest camps which blocked major highways for over two months.

Xi's visit was also an opportunity to drive home the message that the territory needs to diversify away from casinos, which have seen revenues dive owing to a national anti-corruption drive and a stuttering economy.

He called on Macau to "promote appropriately diversified and sustainable economic development" during his speech Saturday, before leaving the enclave in the late afternoon.

Macau is the only part of China where casino gambling is legal and has depended on high-rollers from the mainland.

But Beijing has warned the southern territory to reconsider its dependence on gaming and is reported to already be clamping down on illicit funds channelled from the mainland through its casinos.

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea on Saturday proposed a joint investigation with the US into the hacking attack against Sony Pictures Entertainment, warning of “serious” consequences if Washington rejects a probe that it believes would prove Pyongyang had nothing to do with the cyber attack.

The proposal was seen by analysts as a typical ploy by the North to try to show that it is sincere, even though it knows the US would never accept its offer for a joint investigation.

US 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 to respond. The break-in resulted in the disclosure of tens of thousands of confidential Sony e-mails and business files, and escalated to threats of terror attacks against US movie theatres that caused Sony to cancel the Christmas Day release of “The Interview”, a comedy about a plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

On Saturday, an unidentified North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman in Pyongyang proposed the joint investigation with the US, saying the North knows how to prove it’s not responsible for the hacking. He also said Washington was slandering Pyongyang by spreading unfounded rumours.

“The US 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 the CIA does,” he said, adding that the US lacks any specific evidence tying North Korea to the hacking.

The White House had no immediate comment Saturday.

Koh Yu-hwan, a professor at Seoul’s Dongguk University, called the North’s proposal a “typical” tactic the country has taken in similar disputes with rival countries. In 2010, North Korea proposed a joint investigation after a South Korean-led international team concluded that the North was behind a torpedo attack that killed 46 South Korean sailors, though Pyongyang denied its involvement. South Korea rejected the North’s offer for the joint probe.

“They are now talking about a joint investigation because they think there is no conclusive evidence,” Koh said. “But the US won’t accede to a joint investigation for the crime.”

On Friday, President Barack Obama declared that Sony “made a mistake” in shelving the satirical film about a plot to assassinate the North Korean leader, and pledged that the US would respond “in a place and manner and time that we choose” to the hacking attack on Sony that led to the movie’s withdrawal.

“I wish they had spoken to me first. We cannot have a society in which some dictator someplace can start imposing censorship,” Obama said at a year-end news conference, speaking of executives at Sony Pictures Entertainment.

Sony said it had had no choice but to cancel distribution of the movie because theaters were refusing to show it.

US options for acting against North Korea are limited. The US already has severe trade sanctions in place, and there is no appetite for military action. Even if investigators could identify and prosecute the individual hackers believed responsible, there’s no guarantee that any located are overseas would ever see a US courtroom. Hacking back at North Korean targets by US government experts could encourage further attacks against American targets.

North Korea and the US remain in a technical state of war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty. The rivals also are locked in an international stand-off over the North’s nuclear and missile programmes and its alleged human rights abuses.

Earlier Saturday, North Korea angrily denounced a move by the United Nations to bring its human rights record before the Security Council and renewed its threat to further bolster its nuclear deterrent against what it called a hostile policy by the US to topple its ruling regime.

Pyongyang “vehemently and categorically rejects” the resolution passed by the UN General Assembly that could open the door for its leaders, including Kim Jong-un, to be hauled before the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, according to a Foreign Ministry statement carried by KCNA.

The Security Council is due to meet Monday to discuss Pyongyang’s human rights situation for the first time.

The meeting caps almost a year of international pressure, and even though ally China could use its veto power to block any action against the North, the nonbinding resolution has broad support in the General Assembly and has drawn unusually strong and vitriolic protests from Pyongyang.

BRUSSELS  — The EU imposed additional sanctions Thursday on Crimea, banning all investment and cruise ships from its ports to force home the message the bloc will not recognise Russia's "illegal annexation" of Ukraine territory.

"The annexation is illegal and what we are doing is part of the non-recognition" policy, European Commission spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic said, calling on Russia to help end the Ukraine crisis which has cost more than 4,600 lives since Moscow seized Crimea in March.

EU foreign ministers agreed last month to take further action over Crimea, with the latest measures approved by the 28 members grouped in the European Council, its political arm.

Under the new restrictions, European Union companies will not be allowed to buy real estate in Crimea, finance local companies or supply related services.

Tourism services are also banned, with cruise ships barred from Crimea ports, except in an emergency.

EU companies can no longer export goods or technology for use in the transport, telecoms and energy sectors, specifically for gas and oil exploration and production.

In June, the EU halted imports from Crimea as part of wider sanctions including asset freezes and visa bans against Russian and Ukraine individuals and firms held responsible for driving the crisis.

After the July shooting down of a Malaysia Airlines jet over eastern Ukraine, blamed on pro-Moscow rebels using a Russian-made missile, Brussels extended the sanctions to key economic sectors such as finance, energy and defence.

But many EU member states were reluctant to take that step and diplomats say there is little appetite now to go much further.

Against that backdrop and with the West ruling out military force, there has been some concern that Russia's annexation of Crimea is fast becoming a fait accompli which would not be challenged.

Russian President Vladimir Putin insists Crimea is sacred territory which Moscow will never give up.

EU leaders are due to review overall ties with Russia at a summit Thursday and Friday which, according to a draft communique, will restate their position that further sanctions depend on the situation on the ground.

MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin vowed Thursday that Russia would rapidly recover from its financial crisis and said his grip on power was firm, even as new Western sanctions and a run on the ruble pile on the pressure.

The Russian strongman, who is locked in a confrontation with the West, showed no willingness to change tack on Ukraine and dismissed the possibility of the country's elite turning against him.

Sanctions-hit Russia is grappling with a ruble collapse seen as a major test for Putin, whose pact with voters has been based on the relative prosperity brought by years of high oil prices.

"Yes, these are not easy times," Putin told his end-of-the-year news conference, acknowledging that oil prices could keep falling.

He said Russia would adjust to low oil prices, but he gave no recipe for turning the economy around.

"Under the most unfavourable world conditions, such a situation can last two years," Putin said.

"It could improve earlier, too," he said, praising efforts by the central bank and the government to stabilise the ruble.

Putin appeared tense at the start of the three-and-a-half-hour news conference but quickly recovered to show he was a man in control and even said he didn't regret letting his archrival Mikhail Khodorkovsky out of prison last year.

"Godspeed, let him work," Putin said, referring to the former billionaire who has said he is ready to replace Putin and lead Russia in times of crisis.

'No palace coup' 

The president also laughed off the threat of a coup.

"As for palace coups, calm down," Putin said in response to a question about whether he could be ousted.

"We don't have palaces therefore we cannot have a palace coup. We have the Kremlin official residence, it's well-protected, and this is also a factor of our state stability."

But more importantly, Putin stressed, majority of Russians supported him.

"People in their hearts and minds feel that we and me in particular act in the interests of a majority of the Russian population."

Signs have been emerging over the past weeks of discontent among some officials in the top echelons of power over Putin's confrontation with the West and mounting economic trouble.

In a hugely bold interview with Vedomosti business daily published Thursday, economy minister Alexei Ulyukayev admitted that the government lacked a coherent plan to deal with the crisis.

"I guess we found ourselves in a perfect storm, and I guess it's not an accident," he said. "Because in some way we prepared this storm ourselves," he added, noting that US sanctions would likely last for decades.

The governor of the southern Krasnodar region, Alexander Tkachev, said that Russia was now paying for its "political conquests".

Putin admitted that Western sanctions over Moscow's involvement in the conflict in Ukraine — where 4,700 people have died in fighting between Kiev's forces and Moscow-backed separatists — contributed "25-30 per cent" to the economic turmoil.

But he said Russia's troubles should not be put down to the annexation of Crimea, asserting that the West's goal was to undermine Russia's independence.

"Crimea has nothing to do with this," Putin said, accusing the West of treating the rest of the world as "vassals" and comparing Russia to a bear.

"As soon as they have torn out its claws and teeth, then the bear won't be needed at all — they will make a stuffed figure out of it."

"We are protecting our independence, our sovereignty and our right to exist."

'Punitive operation' in Ukraine 

The Russian strongman made clear that his position on Ukraine has not changed, branding Kiev's military campaign against Russian-backed rebels in the east a "punitive operation".

"It is indeed a punitive operation. But it is being conducted by the current Kiev authorities," Putin said, side-stepping a question from an Ukrainian journalist.

The reporter accused Putin of conducting a "punitive operation" in Ukraine and asking how many regular troops the Russian president had sent in to prop up the separatist insurgency there.

Putin conspicuously chose not to reply to the journalist's question on Russian troops, saying instead: "All people who perform their duty following the call of the heart or participate in the fighting voluntarily are not mercenaries because they are not getting any money for it."

Putin sought to fight off an accusation by a Russian journalist that his policies are deeply polarising and have triggered mounting tensions in Russia.

"All my actions are aimed at bringing our society together and not dividing it," he said.

Western sanctions over Moscow's interference in eastern Ukraine got even harsher on Thursday.

The European Union voted in new measures aimed at isolating Crimea, while US President Barack Obama is set to sign into law fresh sanctions against Russia and authorisation for weapons deliveries to Ukraine.