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Ahn Young-joon/AP

The attacks were monitored at the Korea Internet Security Center in Seoul.

South Korea's Yonhap News Agency and the Associated Press are reporting they've been told by sources that the south's National Intelligence Service thinks North Korea was responsible for "cyber attacks" aimed at South Korea and the U.S. in recent days.

Yonhap writes that:

North Korea appears to have orchestrated the recent cyber attack that disrupted dozens of South Korean Web sites, including that of the presidential office, parliamentary sources said Wednesday, citing informal reports by the top spy agency.

The AP, citing as its source "an aide to one of the (South Korean) lawmakers briefed on the information, says the South Korean spy agency "told a group of South Korean lawmakers Wednesday that it believes that North Korea or North Korean sympathizers in the South 'were behind' the attacks."

Among the U.S. websites hit were those of the Treasury Department, Secret Service and Transportation Department. In South Korea, the targets included the presidential Blue House, the Defense Ministry and banks.