Should U.S. sneak 'The Interview' into North Korea?

President Obama said he wished Sony would have talked to him before deciding to put 'The Interview' on the shelf. VPC

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00:00 Sony corporation. Is it. You know suffered significant damage there
00:07 were threats against its employees. I'm sympathetic to. The concerns. That
00:15 they faced. Having said all that. Yes I think premier mr.
00:21 Again I am sympathetic. It's Sony has a private company was
00:27 worried about liabilities and there's some of the other. I wish
00:31 there's spoken to me first. Well we're told them. Do we
00:35 not all get into. A pattern in which you're intimidated. By
00:43 these kinds of criminal attacks.

A woman walks past a poster for the film 'The Interview' outside a theater in New York on Dec.18, 2014. Sony Pictures canceled the film's Christmas Day release.(Photo: Justin Lane, EPA)

President Obama has several options at his disposal to retaliate for North Korea's cyberattack on Sony Pictures, ranging from counter-cyberattacks to new sanctions to airdropping DVDs of the offending movie, The Interview, into North Korea, foreign policy experts said.

Obama vowed Friday to respond following the FBI's conclusion that the isolated Asian regime had perpetrated the Sony hack and threats of violence against theaters that show the movie. It is a comedy about a hairbrained CIA plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Sony this week canceled the movie's planned Christmas Day release after major theater chains decided not to show it.

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While Obama declined to say when or how he would respond, analysts offered a list of possibilities.

The most in-your-face response would be to airdrop DVDs of The Interview into the nuclear-armed hermit nation, suggested the former chief of the CIA's North Korea unit.

"A great CIA op would be to have this sent into North Korea along with Team America," said Bruce Klingner, the CIA's former chief North Korea analyst who is now at the Heritage Foundation. Team America: World Police was a 2004 puppet comedy that included a comic representation of Kim Jong Un's father, Kim Jong Il.

North Korea has a large black market in DVDs from abroad, which the regime considers a security risk, says Bruce Bechtol, a North Korea analyst at Angelo State University. Many of the DVDs are South Korean soap operas and news shows smuggled in balloons that are released in South Korea and drift into North Korean territory.

"When this movie comes out on DVD just a few of them going across the border into North Korea would go viral," Bechtol said. "That's what Kim Jong Un is worried about. Your own people seeing you in this light is a big concern for you."

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Other options:

• Re-list North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism, Klingner said. President George W. Bush removed the country from the list in 2008 to pave the way for talks on North Korea's nuclear program, but North Korea reneged on its commitments. Klingner said the hack and threats of violence fall under the U.S. definition of terrorism.

• Impose sanctions, especially against North Korean entities and high-ranking individuals involved in the Reconnaissance General Bureau, which conducts clandestine activities and cyber warfare. The U.S. has some sanctions already in place ,but there are still activities that could be blocked. "Their top generals can be sanctioned. Some of those guys travel outside North Korea frequently," Bechtol said.

• Name North Korea a major money-laundering concern for its government's support of counterfeiting activities, Klingner said. That would make it subject to tougher financial restrictions.

• The United States should probe the North Korean cyber environment to better understand its capabilities and vulnerabilities. Then take cyber measures against perpetrators of the Sony attack and other cyber warriors in North Korea, Klingner said.

On the heels of Obama's pointed comments, Sony Pictures Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton gave his first television interview to CNN, saying "We have not caved. We have not given in." VPC

Video Transcript

Automatically Generated Transcript (may not be 100% accurate)

00:02 We have not K we have not given and we
00:05 have persevered and we have not backed down. After shelving the
00:09 controversial film the interview and made terroristic threats from North Korea.
00:13 Sony CEO Michael Clinton defended actually he told CNN's Fareed the
00:17 car you that he was disappointed. This a spot came hours
00:21 after President Obama shared his opinion on the decision yes I
00:24 think premier mr. In a news conference Friday afternoon the president
00:27 that he wish Sony would have talked with them before opening
00:30 the satirical bent on ice. We cannot have a society. In
00:34 which. Some dictator someplace. Can start imposing censorship here in the
00:42 United States. Linton who publicly supported Obama's presidential run. Says that
00:46 the people and the president Armisen violent. Now I don't know
00:50 exactly. Whether he understands the sequence of events that led up
00:54 to the movies not being shown in the movie theaters. Clinton
00:58 said after the nation's largest movie companies chose not to so
01:01 the interview. Their hands were tied. At that point in time
01:04 we had no alternative. But to. Not proceed with the theatrical
01:10 release on the twentieth of December. But Clinton did assure the
01:13 car is that he had every intention for the American public
01:16 to see the film. He's been in Haiti in a news
01:20 give it ain't that has gone actual people's it.