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.
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