WASHINGTON, December 24 (Sputnik) – Putting North Korea back on the US list of states sponsoring terrorism (SST) and ramping up sanctions on Pyongyang would not have a significant impact, the State Department has announced as the United States is accusing the country of being behind a cyber-attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment.
"There would not be a huge practical affect from a sanctions stand point if they [North Korea] were put back on [SST], obviously it is symbolic and there may be some sanctions effect," US Department of State spokesperson Marie Harf said during a press briefing Tuesday.
Harf pointed out that the United States was still in the process of considering how to respond to North Korea and that the US Department of State's experts were still "combing through" to see what specific restrictions still do or do not apply to the country since Pyongyang was taken off the SST list in 2008.
"There's a range of options, I don't think I want to put any on the table or off the table at this point," Harf said.
Last week, Sony cancelled its premiere of a film about a plotted assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un after receiving threats from an anonymous hacker group. On Tuesday, Sony decided to let the movie, called The Interview, run in some theaters on Christmas Day.
The FBI has said that North Korea was behind the cyber-attack on Sony, but Pyongyang denied the claim.
North Korea has also offered to take part in a joint investigation into the Sony incident along with the United States warning that the United States would face serious consequences if they refused to participate in the investigation.
The United States continues to blame Pyongyang for the Sony hack and says that North Korea should compensate the company for its damages resulting from the leak of salary figures, credit card numbers, passwords and other valuable data.
