Well, this is a little embarrassing. The presidential transition team that Thursday blamed North Korean hackers for an attack on its press room now says there was no hacking. It all appears to have been a misunderstanding.

Reporting on the reversal, Yonhap quoted an official on the team as saying the allegations stemmed from a disconnect in communications within the team.

“Security authorities had asked the administrative office of the transition committee to advise reporters to use antivirus programs and change passwords often as the press room is vulnerable to outside hacking attempts,” spokesman Yoon Chang-jung said.

“There was some misunderstanding in the course of delivering this,” he said. — Yonhap News, January 17, 2013.

So in warning of a potential hacking attack, the message seems to have been misunderstood as a report of an actual hack.

The spokesman declined to say if there was any hacking attempt at all. — Yonhap News, January 17, 2013.

North Korea has been blamed several times for hacking attempts on computer systems in South Korea.

The most recent blame was apportioned on Wednesday, when the National Police Agency said North Korea was behind a hack of the Joong-Ang Ilbo newspaper website in June last year.

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  5. North Korea behind Internet attacks, says South
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