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Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., at a town meeting in Houston on March 6.
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The Pyongyang media quoted Kerry as criticizing what North Korea sees as the "hard-line" policy of President Bush.
The reports have focused on Kerry's call for bilateral negotiations between North Korea and the U.S. - something the North had demanded for decades before agreeing last year to multilateral talks that gave South Korea a place at the table along with China, Japan and Russia.
The North Korean media have also quoted Kerry as criticizing Bush's policy on Iraq. North Korea strongly opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq, apparently seeing a precedent there for a preemptive strike against the North's nuclear facilities. Bush in January 2002 included Iraq and North Korea in the same "axis of evil," along with Iran.
The North Korean reports on Kerry have been brief and factual. That's seen as proof that North Korean leaders place a certain confidence in Kerry reflecting the good will engendered by the Clinton administration. Clinton's secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, visited North Korea in late 2000 and Clinton was considering a visit to the North his administration ended in January 2001.
North Korean rhetoric has regularly castigated Bush, denouncing him as a "charlatan" and worse.
