It wasn't a malicious event, nor was the 2003 sequel. They were able to get the grid back online bit by bit by coordinating between power generation companies u

It wasn't a malicious event, nor was the 2003 sequel. They were able to get the grid back online bit by bit by coordinating between power generation companies using other infrastructure. Imagine if not only is the grid down, but the phones are down, the water's down, and air travel is grounded because the control towers operators have been shut out of their systems. Plus, as you're trying to restore the systems with what limited communications you have someone is actively trying to prevent you from doing your job, or there's enough booby-traps in the system that you basically need to re-install everything from scratch and reconfigure everything. This also presumes no critical equipment was damaged in the attacks, which it probably will be. North Korea would want to wreck as much of everything as they possibly can if they're fearing a regime-ending invasion.