The Hack of Sony has been getting a lot of airtime as of late, and rightfully so. I will leave it to others to fully explain the sheer amount of damage it did to the company. However, a primary suspect for the hack that has emerged is North Korea, and that warrants some further attention.
Many reacted in disbelief over this accusation - after all, why go that far over a mere movie even if that plot was likely to upset the North Korean leadership (considering that involved an assassination plot against the Supreme Reader)? But what those people are missing is that stopping was not the point of the whole exercise (assuming for the moment that North Korea really was behind it) - it was just an excuse.
Keep in mind that North Korea has very few sources of revenue - and it is, in fact, dependent on humanitarian aid to prevent wide-spread starvation. If the nation opened up more, it might get more aid - but it will also weaken the regime, possibly causing it to collapse.
And they can't have that. Instead, North Korea has always used a different approach - acting as if they are a crazy loon who must be appeased before they hurt anyone. All those military threats, all those artillery pieces aimed at Seoul, even the nuclear weapons tests... all those are North Korea saying: "Negotiate with us and make us concessions, before something happens you will regret!"
So far, it has worked for them. But, well, sooner or later such threats get stale. If you haven't shelled Seoul for a few decades, then nobody is going to believe you are planning to do it soon. And the nuclear weapons held the attention of the world for a while, but now they too no longer move many headlines. And the thing about military attacks is that they would represent regime suicide if they are actually used - sure, you can hurt (some) enemy nations, but after that they will flatten you. Which is why the North Korean regime - which is very interested in its own survival - won't use them.
But this hack? It works out brilliantly for North Korea. It was no military attack, which means that it will be hard to justify military strikes in return. But they hurt one of the biggest companies in the world very, very badly - and considering the attack was against a media company, and involved a potential blockbuster, the attack and its consequences are now very public. Suddenly, North Korea is discussed by everyone again, and everyone fears them again. How many other companies are vulnerable to attacks like these? Far too many - and as a result, many others will tell their respective governments to tread more softly with North Korea and perhaps give them more concessions - just so that they won't strike again.
Mission accomplished.
