North Korea had a few choice words in official response to U.S. President George W. Bush after his "slander" of the country's leader Kim Jong-Il by calling him a "tyrant."
Pyongyang's Foreign Ministry said the people in the country could not ignore "slandering and cursing remarks" against their "Great Leader."
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North Korean workers at the Taen Friendship Glass factory in Pyeong-an, Dae-an province, west of capital Pyongyang, attend a May Day rally on Sunday, May 1.
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"No one can expect to hear reasonable words from Bush, once a cowboy at a ranch in Texas. Bush is a world dictator whose hands are stained by blood," the statement continued.
"It is our firm stand neither to pardon nor overlook anyone who slanders the supreme headquarters of the DPRK [North Korea]," it said. The supreme headquarters is a reference to Kim Jong-Il.
The North's verbal attack came one day after Bush criticized the communist state and its leader.
In a televised news conference last week, Bush fired a barrage of negative personal comments about Kim, labeling him "a dangerous person" and "tyrant," saying Washington was developing a "comprehensive strategy" to deal with North Korea, including work on a missile defense system.
The criticism came while North Korea was calling for an apology from U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for labeling the country an "outpost of tyranny" earlier this year.
North Korea has demanded Rice's apology as a precondition for the resumption of the long-stalled six-nation talks on its nuclear weapons drive.
The communist state said it does not expect any progress in the six-way talks or any improvement in the country's relations with the United States under the Bush administration.
"Peace can never settle in the world as long as Bush stays in power. The DPRK does not expect any solution to the nuclear issue or any progress in the DPRK-U.S. relations during his term," it said.
North Korea has been locked in a nuclear showdown with the United States since late 2002 when Washington claimed that Pyongyang had a secret nuclear armament program in violation of a bilateral 1994 accord.
Analysts in Seoul say any official negative remarks about North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il were considered as "intolerable provocation" against "the supreme headquarters."
The North's media have said some 1,200 titles and phrases have been created by world leaders to refer to Kim Jong-Il, including "Guardian deity of the planet," "Sun of the 21st century," "Lode star of humanity," and "Saint of saints."
Last week, North Korea's state media praised 11 navy sailors for making efforts to safeguard Kim's portraits, even though they were forced to abandon their ship and jump into the sea.
Kim enjoys the status of a demigod in North Korea, where portraits of Kim and his late father, North Korea's founder Kim Il-Sung, are hung side by side on the walls of most public buildings and homes.
"At this critical moment, they took measures to protect the portraits of President Kim Il-Sung and leader Kim Jong-Il hung in the cabin and badges bearing the image of the president before diving into the roaring sea," said the North's state-run Korean Central News Agency on April 26.
"Such spirit is displayed by officers and men of the three services of the KPA [Korean People's Army]," it said.
