[USFK Forums] North Korea Assails 'Axis of Evil' Comments [AP]

[C. Y. Lee]

Uploaded by C. Y. Lee on Tuesday, March 21, 2006

North Korea Assails 'Axis of Evil' Comment

By JAE-SOON CHANG, Associated Press WriterMon Mar 20, 12:10 AM ET

SEOUL - North Korea berated President Bush on Monday for repeating his earlier description of the communist state as part of an "axis of evil," saying it shows the United States intends to attack it.

In his 2002 State of the Union address, Bush lumped North Korea with Iran and Saddam Hussein's Iraq in an "axis of evil" that was seeking weapons of mass destruction.

On March 10, Bush brought up the description again. "I said in an early speech there was an axis of evil, and it included Iran and North Korea. I did that because I'm concerned about totalitarian governments that are not transparent, that have stated their intentions to develop nuclear weapons," he said.

North Korea's communist party newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, responded on Monday by calling the United States the "ringleader of evil," saying its war on terror had resulted in massacres of people.

The newspaper, in a commentary carried by the official Korean Central News Agency, called Bush's comment "the greatest, intolerable insult to us and a vicious political provocation."

"Bush repeating the axis of evil remarks is nothing but an open proclamation that the U.S. imperialists consider us a target of military attack, not a dialogue partner," it said.

North Korea often uses harsh language to vilify the U.S. and its leaders, but doesn't tolerate criticism from Washington.

The North strongly protested when U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice labeled the communist nation an "outpost of tyranny" in her confirmation hearing last year.

North Korea says those descriptions by top U.S. officials show Washington's "hostility," which it calls the main obstacle to resolving a standoff over its nuclear programs.

Six countries — China, Japan, the two Koreas, Russia and the United States — have held five rounds of talks to try to settle the dispute.

The meetings produced an interim breakthrough in September, when the North agreed in principle to abandon its nuclear programs. But talks on implementing that agreement have stalled.



(End)