Don't blame North Korea for the Sony Pictures Entertainment hack. So claims a diplomat for the dictatorship that refers to itself as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. "Linking the DPRK to the Sony hacking is another fabrication targeting the country," the official tells Voice of America, speaking on condition of anonymity. "My country publicly declared that it would follow international norms banning hacking and piracy."

After days of silence - and speculation - that's the first official denial from North Korea, after suggestions that it launched the Nov. 24 attack using "wiper" malware known both as "Destover" and "Wipall," which was built to delete data from PC and file-server hard drives at Sony Pictures Entertainment. Attackers also stole and have begun releasing many gigabytes - and potentially terabytes - of Sony data.

 Somebody ought to make a movie about this. 

Sony has yet to respond to my requests for comment, or issue a definitive, public statement on the attack, for which a group calling itself the Guardians of Peace, or G.O.P., has claimed credit.

Earlier this week, re/code - a news site affiliated with CNBC - reported that Sony was set to announce that it had been hacked by North Korea.

But a Sony official later dismissed that report. "The investigation continues into this very sophisticated cyber-attack. The re/code story is not accurate," a Sony Pictures Entertainment representative told the Associated Press.

Wiper Malware: The Korean Connection

The North Korean suspicions were sparked by Destover/Wipall having been built using some Korean-language tools, according to a related, Dec. 2 "FBI Flash - Destructive Malware" warning. Some digital forensic investigators hired by Sony have allegedly also seen similarities between the malware and the attack code used in the 2013 "Dark Seoul" incidents, for which North Korea has been blamed.

Another potential link is the Sony film The Interview, due out Christmas Day, which centers on a pair of tabloid TV reporters - played by James Franco and Seth Rogen - heading to Pyongyang to interview Kim Jong-un, only to be approached by the CIA to assassinate him instead. North Korean officials in June denounced the comedy, telling the despotic state's own news agency that the film was an "act of war that we will never tolerate," and promising "merciless" retaliation.

The plot continues to thicken. On December 3, G.O.P. leaked internal documents from Deloitte, including salary information for more than 30,000 employees, The New York Times reports. Deloitte didn't immediately respond to a request for comment, but spokesman Jonathan Gandal told The New York Times that the company is aware of reports that older Deloitte data may have been stolen from a third party.

Hollywood's Own Cablegate

Remember the 250,000 classified State Department cables released by WikiLeaks? The Sony Pictures Entertainment hack is fast becoming Hollywood's equivalent, as entertainment reporters pore over the leaked materials, which have so far reportedly revealed not just every employee's salary, but a document that Gawker describes as a "25-page list of reasons it sucks to work at Sony," compiled from employees' grievances.