The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Tuesday 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 which calls for 'respect for sovereignty' and 'peaceful co-existence'," said a spokesman of the DPRK'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 United States in terms of dealing with a tyrant in the DPRK.

"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 DPRK official said.

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

He emphasized that the DPRK 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 the DPRK, South Korea, the United States, Japan, Russia and China agreed in late September to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula in a verifiable and peaceful way.

Source: Xinhua