North Korean leader gets some respect from Bush -- official
*The saga continues...
North Korean leader gets some respect from Bush -- official SEOUL (AFP) Jun 03, 2005
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il is apparently pleased with US President George W. Bush for "politely" referring to him this week as "Mr Kim".
The sign of respect came at Tuesday's White House question and answer session when Bush, who harbours a deep personal animosity towards the North Korean leader and has referred to him in the past as a pigmy who starves his own people, said "Mr Kim" should drop his nuclear weapons drive.
North Korea's official Korea Central News Agency issued a statement from a foreign ministry spokesman on Friday saying the Pyongyang leadership had taken "note of this."
"Bush was reported to have said 'Mr', politely addressing our 'headquarters of revolution'...," a term used by North Korea to refer to Kim Jong-Il.
It said the apparent civility could help bring the parties back to the table for a new round of six-party talks, if it signalled "an end to the scramble between the hawkish group and the moderate group in the US..."
However, as a precondition for a return to the talks, which North Korea has boycotted for a year, Pyongyang demanded that Washington retract Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's reference to North Korea as an "outpost of tyranny."
Rice made the remarks during her January confirmation hearing in the US Senate and has refused to apologize.
In a more recent war of words, Vice President Dick Cheney called Kim an "irresponsible" leader who ran a police state, prompting Pyongyang to call him a "bloodthirsty beast."
Last month North Korea's official media called Bush a "war maniac" and "Hitler junior."
Market Data 
Markets 
AI
