SEOUL: Republic of Korea (ROK) intelligence officials believe the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) or pro-Pyongyang forces in the ROK committed cyber attacks that paralyzed major ROK and US websites, lawmaker's aide said yesterday.

The sites of 11 ROK organizations including the presidential Blue House and the Defense Ministry went down or had access problems since late Tuesday, according to the state-run Korea Information Security Agency. Agency spokeswoman Ahn Jeong-eun said 11 US sites suffered similar problems.

Yesterday, the National Intelligence Service told a group of ROK lawmakers it believes that the DPRK or DPRK sympathizers in the ROK "were behind" the attacks, according to an aide to one of the lawmakers briefed.