North Korea denounced US President George W. Bush as a "wicked man" comparable to Adolf Hitler, and labeled his advocating democracy a pretext for invading other countries.
"The US admonition for `freedom' and `democracy' is to invent pretexts for violating [the] sovereignty of other countries and nations and establishing its unchallenged domination over the world," the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KNCA) wrote on late Monday.
Bush, addressing South Korea-based US troops during an Asian tour on Sunday, didn't directly mention the North but alluded to the communist nation as he praised the capitalist South.
South Korea "is now a beacon of liberty that shines across the most heavily armed border in the world," Bush said.
"It is a light reaching to a land shrouded in darkness,'' he said.
"Together the United States and [South Korea] have shown that the future belongs to freedom, and one day all Koreans will enjoy the blessings of freedom," he said.
Pyongyang said Bush's "reckless remarks would entail adverse consequences in the process for denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula."
Warlike
KCNA called Bush a "warlike president" who "took the lead in advocating state-sponsored terrorism" and "openly defended murderous torture in prisons" -- which it claimed were reminiscent of the Auschwitz concentration camp.
KNCA wrote: "History proves that the ringleaders of fascism that stood stern trials for their crimes against humanity advocated `freedom' and `democracy' more noisily than any others."
"This will only more glaringly reveal his true colors as a wicked man whom the world compares to fascist fanatic Hitler," it said.
North Korea has bristled at US criticism of its human rights record, seeing it as part of an attempt to overthrow the regime.
Its fears grew after the US invaded Iraq, and Pyongyang has claimed it was compelled to build nuclear weapons for self-defense.
Isolation
The North yesterday also denounced a recent US government report citing the country's lack of religious freedom.
The report "is part of a US plot to isolate and stifle anti-US countries one by one," the North's official Rodong Sinmun daily said.
"The process of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula can progress only in an atmosphere of mutual respect and trust," the daily said.
The US and four other countries have sought since 2003 to persuade the North to disarm.
In September, the delegates reached a breakthrough accord in which the North pledged to abandon its nuclear programs in exchange for aid and security assurances, but there has since been no progress on how to implement the agreement.
When a hiker fell from a 55m waterfall in wild New Zealand bush, rescuers were forced to evacuate the badly hurt woman without her dog, which could not be found. After strangers raised thousands of dollars for a search, border collie Molly was flown to safety by a helicopter pilot who was determined to reunite the pet and the owner. A week earlier, an emergency rescue helicopter found the woman with bruises and lacerations after a fall at a rocky spot at the waterfall on the South Island’s West Coast. She was airlifted on March 24, but they were forced to
CONFIDENCE BOOSTER: ’After parkour ... you dare to do a lot of things that you think only young people can do,’ a 67-year-old parkour enthusiast said In a corner of suburban Singapore, Betty Boon vaults a guardrail, crawls underneath a slide, executes forward shoulder rolls and scales a steep slope, finishing the course to applause. “Good job,” the 69-year-old’s coach cheers. This is “geriatric parkour,” where about 20 retirees learned to tackle a series of relatively demanding exercises, building their agility and enjoying a sense of camaraderie. Boon, an upbeat grandmother, said learning parkour has aided her confidence and independence as she ages. “When you’re weak, you will be dependent on someone,” she said after sweating it out with her parkour classmates in suburban Toa Payoh,
HIGH HOPES: The power source is expected to have a future, as it is not dependent on the weather or light, and could be useful for places with large desalination facilities A Japanese water plant is harnessing the natural process of osmosis to generate renewable energy that could one day become a common power source. The possibility of generating power from osmosis — when water molecules pass from a less salty solution to a more salty one — has long been known. However, actually generating energy from that has proved more complicated, in part due the difficulty of designing the membrane through which the molecules pass. Engineers in Fukuoka, Japan, and their private partners think they might have cracked it, and have opened what is only the world’s second osmotic power plant. It generates
Chinese dissident artist Gao Zhen (高兟), famous for making provocative satirical sculptures of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong (毛澤東), was tried on Monday over accusations of “defaming national heroes and martyrs,” his wife and a rights group said. Gao, 69, who was detained in 2024 during a visit from the US, faces a maximum three-year prison sentence, said his wife, Zhao Yaliang (趙雅良), and Shane Yi, a researcher at the Chinese Human Rights Defenders group which operates outside the nation. The closed-door, one-day trial took place at Sanhe City People’s Court in Hebei Province neighboring the capital, Beijing, and ended without a
RSS