North Korea has suffered another internet disruption, according to news reports.
China’s Xinhua news agency reported Saturday that North Korea’s Internet and 3G mobile phone networks have been paralyzed once again.
The report of the latest internet outage to hit the hermetic regime comes as North Korea hurled a racist insult at President Obama and accused the United States of being behind widespread Internet interruptions that have bedevilled the country in recent days.
An unidentified spokesman for North Korea’s National Defense Commission told the official Korean Central News Agency, “Obama always goes reckless in words and deeds like a monkey in a tropical forest.”
The Obama administration last week blamed North Korea for launching a cyberattack on Sony Pictures in response to the comedy The Interview, which depicts the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un by American journalists played by actors Seth Rogen and James Franco.
North Korea has denounced the film but maintains that it was not behind the Sony attack, which exposed executives’ private e-mails and yet-to-be-released films.
U.S. officials have not commented on whether the country had a role in the Internet outages. Last week Obama said the U.S. would take unspecified action against North Korea.