U.S. President Barack Obama gestures as he answers a question during his end of the year press conference
IN PHOTO: U.S. President Barack Obama gestures as he answers a question during his end of the year press conference in the briefing room of the White House in Washington, December 19, 2014. Obama and his family plan to depart Washington later in the day to spend the holidays in Hawaii. Reuters/Stringer

North Korea has come down strongly on United States President Barack Obama over the release of the highly controversial movie 'The Interview'. The National Defence Commission of the country has given a public statement blaming President Obama for the movie's release.

"U.S. President Obama is the chief culprit who forced Sony Pictures Entertainment to 'indiscriminately distribute' the movie and took the lead in appeasing and blackmailing cinema houses and theatres in the U.S. mainland to distribute the movie," North Korea's National Defence Commission told the state-run media, as reported by CNN.

The issue has intensified as an unidentified spokesman from the commission's Policy Department has reportedly even called President Obama a 'monkey'. "Obama always goes reckless in words and deeds like a monkey in a tropical forest," declares the official, further heating up the whole issue.

North Korea has expressed its strong opposition against the release of the movie, 'The Interview', which is a satirical take on the assassination of North Korea leader Kim Jong-un. To express their anger and opposition against the movie, North Korean supporters and a cyber gang, called 'Guardians Of Peace', hacked the internal IT system of Sony. They shook Hollywood with their acts of publicly releasing various confidential data, email exchanges and unfinished scripts.

In earlier reports, it was noted that the investigation results released by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) showed that North Korea purported the cyber attack on Sony. North Korea has vehemently denied the blame, but described the hacking incident as a "righteous deed".

Witnessing the outrage and the theatre owners' fear due to the 9/11 style attack threats issued by the hackers, the movie's Christmas release was called off. This move by Sony saw criticism from all quarters, including President Obama who called it a "cowardly act".

Sony again back tracked from its decision and arranged for direct distribution online via its own services, YouTube and through independent cinemas. Few theatre owners even decided to go ahead and release the movie on Christmas day. In contrast to the planned release in 2,000 to 3,000 cinemas all over the country, the movie was ultimately released in only 300 halls.

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