N. Korea Rips U.S. 'Aggression'

North Korea on Thursday said President Bush's State of the Union address was an "undisguised declaration of aggression."

In its first reaction to the speech, North Korea said it "will never allow the U.S. to wantonly encroach upon the sovereignty and dignity of the (North) and destroy its system."

"This policy speech is, in essence, an undisguised declaration of aggression to topple the DPRK system," an unidentified spokesman of the North's Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by the North's official news agency, KCMNA. DPRK is the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea.

"Bush has so far earned an ill fame as an emotional backbiter, but his recent address clearly proves that he is a shameless charlatan reversing black and white under the eyes of the world and the incarnation of the misanthropy as he rejects the people out of his favor for no reason," the North Korean spokesman said.

In the speech, the president discussed North Korea along with Iran and Iraq — the other two members of an alleged "axis of evil" that Mr. Bush named in his State of the Union address the preceding year.

The president touched on the Korean situation only briefly compared to the long passage about Iraq.

"On the Korean Peninsula, an oppressive regime rules a people living in fear and starvation," the president said. "Throughout the 1990s, the United States relied on a negotiated framework to keep North Korea from gaining nuclear weapons. We now know that that regime was deceiving the world, and developing those weapons all along.

"And today the North Korean regime is using its nuclear program to incite fear and seek concessions. America and the world will not be blackmailed," he continued. Mr. Bush said that the U.S. was working for a peaceful solution. "The North Korean regime will find respect in the world and revival for its people only when it turns away from its nuclear ambitions."

The North Korean official accused Mr. Bush of "trying to mislead the public opinion by spreading the rumor that the (North) is chiefly to blame for the nuclear issue."

"This is the height of shamelessness," he was quoted as saying. "We will do our utmost to defend our system in view of the U.S. declaration of aggression."

It was not immediately clear what phrases the North Koreans found offensive. In the remainder of the president's speech, mainly in discussing Iraq, the president did allude to considering preemptive strikes against perceived threats, a policy stance the North Koreans have opposed.

Since the nuclear dispute erupted in October, North Korean media has frequently issued harshly worded pronouncements, saying that the imposition of sanctions would be tantamount to an act of war, and declaring the Korean peninsula to be on the brink of military conflict.

The diplomatic standoff was sparked in October when U.S. officials said North Korea had admitted having a nuclear program in violation of a 1994 agreement. Washington and its allies suspended oil shipments to North Korea — which in turn expelled U.N. nuclear inspectors and pulled out of a global nuclear arms control treaty

North Korea claims the crisis was triggered by aggressive moves by the Bush administration, like the "axis of evil" speech and its avowed policy of considering preemptive strikes.

In addition, some say the United States never adhered to the 1994 deal, delaying the construction of nuclear reactors and failing to officially recognize the North.

North Korea has demanded direct talks with the United States and insisted Washington sign a non-aggression pact. The Bush administration has resisted direct negotiations to date.

North Korean negotiators said again this week that the dispute over their country's nuclear activity can only be solved through dialogue with the United States, a South Korean envoy said Wednesday after returning from Pyongyang.