- Graham said he believes China was involved in North Korea's cyberattack.
- Graham gave Obama a rare kudos on his handling of the Sony hack
Washington -- Sen. Lindsey Graham hinted at China's involvement in the North Korean cyberattack on Sony Pictures and called for additional U.S. action against North Korea to make the hermit kingdom "feel the pain that is due."
"I can't imagine anything this massive happening in North Korea without China being involved or at least knowing about it," Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, told CNN's Dana Bash on "State of the Union."
Graham called for more sanctions against the regime and said President Barack Obamashould put North Korea back on the list of state sponsors of terrorism, something Obama is currently reviewing.
The Republican senator gave Obama rare kudos for the President's handling of the North Korean affair so far.
"So far so good, Mr. President," Graham said, despite adding that Obama should have labeled the attack as cyberterrorism and not "cybervandalism," as Obama called the hack in a CNN interview last week.
"What's happened here it shows how exposed we are in America to cyberattack," Graham said.
"If North Korea can do this to a major corporation in America, what can other people do to our country."
The FBI determined that North Korea was behind the attack on Sony Pictures amid plans to release "The Interview," a movie about an assassination plot against North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
The FBI added that it did not suspect any other country was involved in the attack.
Graham did criticize Obama's leadership of the U.S.'s prison at Guantanamo Bay.
While Graham supports Obama's vow to close the detention facility, the Senate Armed Services Committee member said he doesn't want the U.S. to release terror suspects held at the facility.
Instead, Graham wants the detainees transferred to a military prison in the U.S., where many would continue to be held indefinitely without trial "under the laws of war."
More than 100 prisoners have been released from Guantanamo after a top U.S. task force deemed them low-level threats to the U.S.
"I don't think there's any appetite in Congress to close Guantanamo Bay. I think the American people want to keep it open," Graham said.
"Most people in the world are more worried about terrorists leaving Guantanamo Bay than they are the prison being open."
The U.S. released 10 detainees in the last month and hopes to transfer dozens more in the next six months as Obama looks to close Guantanamo in the last two years of his presidency.
Chinese Cyberterrorism
Gmail blocked in China (again)
BY PAUL CARSTEN
People are silhouetted as they pose with laptops in front of a screen projected with a Google logo, in this picture illustration taken in Zenica October 29, 2014.
Google Inc's Gmail was blocked in China after months of disruptions to the world's biggest email service, with an anti-censorship advocate suggesting the Great Firewall was to blame.
Large numbers of Gmail web addresses were cut off in China on Friday, said GreatFire.org, a China-based freedom of speech advocacy group.
Users said the service was still down on Monday.
"I think the government is just trying to further eliminate Google's presence in China and even weaken its market overseas," said a member of GreatFire.org, who uses a pseudonym.
"Imagine if Gmail users might not get through to Chinese clients. Many people outside China might be forced to switch away from Gmail."
Google's own Transparency Report, which shows real-time traffic to Google services, displayed a sharp drop-off in traffic to Gmail from China on Friday.
"We've checked and there's nothing wrong on our end," a Singapore-based spokesman for Google said in an email.
Almost all of Google's services have been heavily disrupted in China since June this year, but until last week Gmail users could still access emails downloaded via protocols like IMAP, SMTP and POP3.
These had let people communicate using Gmail on apps like the Apple iPhone's Mail and Microsoft Outlook.
China maintains tight control over the internet, nipping in the bud any signs of dissent or challenges to the ruling Communist Party's leadership.
The country is host to the world's most sophisticated internet censorship mechanism, known as the Great Firewall of China.
China has stepped up its disruption of foreign online services like Google over the past year to create an internet cut off from the rest of the world.
The Google disruption began in the run-up to the 25th anniversary of the government's bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators around Beijing's Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989.
Gmail's setback could make email communication difficult for companies operating in China which use Google's Gmail for their corporate email system, said GreatFire.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said she did not know anything about Gmail being blocked, adding that the government was committed to providing a good business environment for foreign investors.
One popular way for companies and people to get around China's internet censorship is to use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) which allows unhindered access to blocked sites and services.
"It's becoming harder and harder to connect and do work in China when services like Gmail are being blocked," said Zach Smith, a Beijing-based digital products manager atCity Weekend magazine. "Using a VPN seems to be the only answer to doing anything these days online in China."
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