I do think that the ransom makes the North Korea explanation less likely, unless NK reached out to #GOP after they were not given a ransom and offered to pay?

I do think that the ransom makes the North Korea explanation less likely, unless NK reached out to #GOP after they were not given a ransom and offered to pay? The other explanation seems to be that #GOP would demand the movie not be shown to confuse the scent of their real motive (revenge? lulz?) (but this is also questionable IMO). It also seems unlikely that an ex-employee would use the same IPs from previous Korean state sponsored attacks, although maybe they could have bought access to these servers on underground forums? Others are suggesting that this is entirely invented evidence - I see no good reason to believe that.