North Korea yesterday lashed out at US President George W. Bush for turning "a peaceful world into a pandemonium unprecedented in history," and reaffirmed it won't attend preparatory meetings ahead of planned nuclear disarmament talks.
Last week, Bush referred to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il as a "tyrant," and said he had embarked on six-nation talks to convince Kim to disarm because the US couldn't do it alone.
The next round of talks -- which also include China, Japan, Russia and South Korea -- are supposed to take place by the end of next month. But North Korea has recently thrown those plans into doubt by saying it won't attend working meetings to prepare for the larger talks.
Alleging that Bush has ramped up his hostile rhetoric, an unnamed spokesman from the North Korean Foreign Ministry said Bush's comments "clearly disclosed that it is the real intention of the US to bring down the system in the DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] by force though everything in the world may change."
"The meeting of the working group for the six-party talks can not be opened because the US has become more undisguised in pursuing its hostile policy towards the DPRK, backtracking from all agreements and common understanding reached at the third round of the six-party talks," the statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency said.
In Seoul, officials said South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Soo-hyuck will visit China and Japan this week to discuss the North Korean nuclear issue, including resuming the preparatory talks.
Some media reports have speculated the North is seeking to delay the next round of talks until after the US presidential election in November, hoping to get a better offer from a new administration -- something the North has denied.
The US has pushed for North Korea to fully disclose all of its nuclear activities and allow outside monitoring before it receives concessions. The North wants energy aid, lifting of economic sanctions and removal from Washington's list of state sponsors of terrorism.
The North also leveled personal attacks at Bush, calling him "a political imbecile bereft of even elementary morality as a human being and a bad guy, much less being a politician" and said he had started wars in Iraq and elsewhere "to commit genocide as he pleases."
"Bush is a tyrant that puts Hitler into the shade and his group of such tyrants is a typical gang of political gangsters," the statement said.
It added that North Korea would increase its defense capabilities a "thousand times."
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