The North Korean chapter of the disciples of St. Francis of Asissi located in Pyonyang have weighed in on American presidential politics:
SEOUL (AFP) - North Korea (news - web sites) described US President George W. Bush (news - web sites) as an "imbecile" and a "tyrant" who was worse than Adolf Hitler, and ruled out holding new talks on nuclear weapons with the United States.
In an unusually strong attack, a North Korean foreign ministry spokesman said comments by Bush calling North Korea a tyrant during campaigning last week in Wisconin were "malignant slanders and calumnies".
"He is a political imbecile bereft of even elementary morality as a human being and a bad guy," said the spokesman, quoted by the official KCNA news agency.
The spokesman blamed Bush for starting wars in Iraq (news - web sites) and elsewhere, and said the United States was trying to topple the legitimate government of North Korea.
"Bush's assumption of office turned a peaceful world into a pandemonium unprecedented in history as it is plagued with a vicious circle of terrorism and war," said the statement.
The spokesman went on to describe Bush as "a tyrant that puts Hitler into the shade" as well as "an idiot, an ignorant, a tyrant and a man-killer."
He said that following Bush's comments, it would be "impossible" to hold working-level discussions to prepare for a new round of multilateral talks on the nuclear issue. The talks bring together the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States.
"This made it quite impossible for the DPRK (North Korea) to go to the talks and deprived it of any elementary justification to sit at the negotiating table with the US," he said.
Well. Sounds like the gentle souls that rule North Korea have taken time out of their busy schedule crushing their people under their Stalinist boots to read Howard Dean and Al Gore speeches from last Fall.
If one of the cruelest, most oppressive, most morally retrograde regimes on earth dislikes Bush so much he must be doing something right.
Word has it that Sen. Kerry, having called for Pres. Bush to denounce the Swift Boat vets' ads, is even now busily preparing a vigorous denunciation of this scurrilous attack on his political opponent.