North Korea lashes out at South's new president

By Jon Herskovitz

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea unleashed a torrent of insults at South Korea's new president on Tuesday in a first mention of Lee Myung-bak since he won a December election with a pledge to get tough on his communist neighbor.

In the last week the North has test-fired missiles, expelled South Korean officials working at a joint factory park in the North and threatened to reduce South Korea to ashes in a show of anger at Lee and the South's ally, the United States.

North Korea called Lee, who took office in February, a "political charlatan", an "absent minded traitor" and a "U.S. sycophant" in a commentary in the communist party Rodong Sinmun newspaper carried by its KCNA news agency.

Lee's government has told Pyongyang that if it wants to keep receiving aid, it should improve human rights, abide by an international nuclear deal and start returning the more than 1,000 Southerners kidnapped or held since the 1950-53 Korean War.

The stand has infuriated the testy North, used to billions of dollars of aid over the past 10 years from Lee's left-of-centre predecessors whose "sunshine policy" sought little in return.

"The Lee Myung-bak regime will be held totally responsible for ushering in a catastrophic incident by freezing North-South relations and destroying peace and stability on the Korean peninsula through its pro-U.S., anti-North Korea confrontational attempts," the commentary said.

DEFLECT BLAME

With its taunts, analysts said the North may be trying to deflect blame from itself for a delay in implementing a deal with regional powers to scrap a nuclear arms program in exchange for massive aid and an end to its international ostracism.  Continued...