N. Korea Calls Bush 'Imbecile'

(AP)  North Korea lashed out Monday at U.S. President Bush for turning "a peaceful world into a pandemonium unprecedented in history," and reaffirmed the communist nation won't attend working meetings ahead of planned nuclear disarmament talks.

Last week, President 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 United States couldn't do it alone.

Monday, the North Korean government fired back with its own volley of words, aimed directly at President Bush. Calling Mr. Bush "a political imbecile bereft of even elementary morality as a human being and a bad guy, much less being a politician," North Korea accused him of starting 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, adding that North Korea would increase its defense capabilities a "thousand times."

The next round of disarmament talks - which also include China, Japan, Russia and South Korea - are supposed to take place by the end of September. 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 President Bush has ramped up his hostile rhetoric, an unnamed spokesman from the North Korean Foreign Ministry said the U.S. president's comments "clearly disclosed that it is the real intention of the U.S. to bring down the system in the DPRK by force though everything in the world may change." DPRK stands for Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's official name.

"The meeting of the working group for the six-party talks can not be opened because the U.S. 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.

Some media reports have speculated the North is seeking to delay the next round of talks until after the U.S. presidential election in November, hoping to get a better offer from a new administration - something the North has denied.

The United States has pushed for North Korea to fully disclose all 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.


By Burt Herman