China said Tuesday there was no proof that North Korea was behind a cyberattack on Sony Pictures Entertainment, signaling its reluctance to side with the United States over the incident, while also rejecting speculation it could have cut off Pyongyang's Internet access as punishment.
Asked about American requests for help from China to punish North Korea for cyberattacks, Hua Chunying, a spokeswoman for China's foreign ministry, said the United States and North Korea needed to communicate directly.
She said Beijing had not seen proof of who was behind the attack on Sony. "We need sufficient evidence before drawing any conclusion," she said at a news conference.
Administration officials had asked China last Thursday to block Pyongyang's access to Internet routers and servers based in China, to expel North Korean hackers living in China and to pressure the regime of Kim Jong Un to end its alleged cyber offensive against companies in the United States, according to one official.
On Monday, North Korea's Internet went dark for more than nine hours, but the question of who pulled the plug remained a mystery.
While the U.S. government issued a coy nondenial that it might have been responsible, China categorically rejected media speculation that it might have been to blame.
"This kind of reporting has no factual basis, it is speculative and pure assumption, it is not trustworthy at all," Hua said. "And the reporting itself is irresponsible, nonprofessional, and misleading."
The attack on Sony has put Beijing in a difficult position. On the one hand, it wants to cooperate with the United States on cybersecurity and cyberterrorism, but on the other it does not want to alienate its allies in North Korea.
