Lawmaker Wants ‘Show of Force’ Against North Korea

A key Republican lawmaker on Thursday urged President Obama to launch a cyber attack against North Korea, or increase international sanctions against the communist country, in the wake of an unknown hacker’s denial-of-service attacks on U.S. and South Korean websites.

Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Michigan), the lead Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said the U.S. should conduct a “show of force or strength” against North Korea for a supposed role in a round of attacks that hit numerous government and commercial websites this week.

Hoekstra, speaking on the conservative America’s Morning News radio show, produced by the Washington Times newspaper, said that “some of the best people in America” had been investigating the attacks and concluded that most likely “all the fingers” point to North Korea as the culprit.

They’re reaching the conclusion that this was a state act and that “this couldn’t be some amateurs,” claimed Hoekstra, in direct opposition to what security experts have actually been saying.

He added that North Korea needed to be “sent a strong message.”

“Whether it is a counterattack on cyber, whether it is, you know, more international sanctions . . . but it is time for America and South Korea, Japan and others to stand up to North Korea or the next time . . . they will go in and shut down a banking system or they will manipulate financial data or they will manipulate the electrical grid, either here or in South Korea,” Hoekstra said. “Or they will try to, and they may miscalculate, and people could be killed.”

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