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Rumsfeld brands North Korea `evil` for starving its people
Osan Air Base (South Korea), Nov 18: US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld branded North Korea `evil` today for spending money on weapons while starving its people.
Osan Air Base (South Korea), Nov 18: US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld branded North Korea "evil" today for spending money on weapons while starving its people.
He said US troops based in South Korea lived on the border between freedom and slavery as he addressed hundreds of US airmen and women on the final day of a three-day visit to the country.
He said 50 years after the end of the 1950-53 Korean war, when US-led UN forces fought Chinese-backed North Koreans, the divide between the communist north and capitalist south was now "so great the people in the north, repressed people to be sure, watch their children waste away, eat (tree) bark, as that evil regime spends huge sums on weapons."
The remark, reminiscent of US President George W Bush's "axis of evil" speech that stung North Korea last year, is sure to upset the Stalinist state which is currently engaged in delicate negotiations for a resumption of multilateral nuclear crisis talks.
North Korea lashed out angrily in August after Washington's top arms control official, John Bolton, described its leader Kim Jong-Il as a "tyrannical dictator" who made life a "hellish nightmare" for his people.
The United States bases 37,000 troops in South Korea and Rumsfeld spent the day visiting frontline units and Osan, home to two US fighter wings.
Bureau Report
He said 50 years after the end of the 1950-53 Korean war, when US-led UN forces fought Chinese-backed North Koreans, the divide between the communist north and capitalist south was now "so great the people in the north, repressed people to be sure, watch their children waste away, eat (tree) bark, as that evil regime spends huge sums on weapons."
The remark, reminiscent of US President George W Bush's "axis of evil" speech that stung North Korea last year, is sure to upset the Stalinist state which is currently engaged in delicate negotiations for a resumption of multilateral nuclear crisis talks.
North Korea lashed out angrily in August after Washington's top arms control official, John Bolton, described its leader Kim Jong-Il as a "tyrannical dictator" who made life a "hellish nightmare" for his people.
The United States bases 37,000 troops in South Korea and Rumsfeld spent the day visiting frontline units and Osan, home to two US fighter wings.
Bureau Report