North Korea says linking cyber attack to Pyongyang is 'ridiculous'

North Korea's deputy U.N. envoy said on Friday "it is ridiculous" to link Pyongyang with the WannaCry "ransomware" cyber attack that started to sweep around the globe a week ago and has infected more than 300,000 computers in 150 nations

WannaCry threatens to lock out victims who have not paid a sum of $300 to $600 within one week of infection. French researchers said on Friday they had found a last-chance way for technicians to save Windows files encrypted by WannaCry.

"Relating to the cyber attack, linking to the DPRK, it is ridiculous," North Korea's Deputy U.N. Ambassador Kim In Ryong told a news conference. North Korea is also known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

"Whenever something strange happens, it is the stereotype way of the United States and the hostile forces that kick off noisy anti-DPRK campaign deliberately linking with DPRK," Kim said.

Symantec and Kaspersky Lab said on Monday that some code in an earlier version of the WannaCry software had also appeared in programs used by the Lazarus Group, which researchers from many companies have identified as a North Korea-run hacking operation.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Jonathan Oatis)