North Korea yesterday slammed US President George W. Bush for stigmatizing its leader Kim Jong-il as a "tyrant."

"It is a blatant violation of the spirit of the joint statement of the six-party talks that calls for 'respect for sovereignty' and 'peaceful coexistence'," said a spokesperson of the country's Foreign Ministry.

He said it was hard to discern whether Bush is aware of the content of the joint statement or he intentionally pretended to be ignorant of it, but "what is clear is that he does not know about the trend of the times at all."

Bush said in a meeting with Brazilian leaders on Sunday that Japan was on the same side as the US in terms of dealing with a tyrant in North Korea.

"These remarks, made by the US president against the backdrop of his administration's intensified moves for economic and financial sanctions against us, quite contrary to the spirit of the joint statement, arouse our serious concern about the prospect of implementing the joint statement," the spokesperson said.

"It deprives us of any trust in the negotiators of the US side to the six-party talks," he added.

He emphasized that North Korea will never pardon whoever dares to speak ill of its leaders in any case.

The fifth round of six-way talks is expected to begin in Beijing on Wednesday after North Korea, South Korea, the US, Japan, Russia and China agreed in late September to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula in a verifiable and peaceful way.

(Xinhua News Agency November 9, 2005)