At the White House, President Obama concluded that nonresponse was no longer an option. That December, the president announced that the United States would “respond proportionally” to North Korea’s attack. He declined to give specifics, saying only that the United States would hit “in a place and time and manner of our choosing.” Later, officials would tell me Obama was speaking to two audiences that day; he was addressing Iran too. Three days later, a funny thing happened. North Korea’s already dim connection to the outside world went dark for an entire day.
