Israel Matzav

North Korea: 'Lieberman's an imbecile'; Lieberman: 'Thanks for the compliment'

North Korea has called Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman an imbecile after he accused the country's rulers of providing nuclear weapons to Syria last week. Lieberman has responded by thanking the North Koreans for the compliment.

North Korea on Saturday angrily denied previous Israeli allegations that Pyongyang is spreading weapons of mass destruction, denouncing Lieberman as an "ultra-rightist" and "an imbecile in diplomacy" and vowing not to tolerate Israel's alleged slander.

The North's Foreign Ministry said Saturday the country has nothing to do with the spread of WMDs. It also said it would never pardon Israel for daring to slander the dignified (North) by concocting "sheer lies."

The comments, published by the North's official Korean Central News Agency, were the first official response to Lieberman's comment this past week.

Lieberman on Tuesday urged the international community to do everything in its power to prevent Iran and North Korea from fulfilling their nuclear ambitions.

Speaking a day after North Korea conducted a nuclear weapons test, Lieberman told Army Radio: "To our regret we see a mad arms race in the country. Everything must be done in order thwart their attempts to reach a nuclear capability.

Lieberman's comments came as North Korea reportedly launched tests Tuesday of two more short-range missiles, pushing the regime's confrontation with world powers further despite the threat of United Nations Security Council action.

The foreign minister added: "Up until today there were neither sanctions against Iran nor against North Korea. They need to be completely closed in terms of financial activities; the two states need to understand they are dependent on the supply of petrol because they have no refineries."

JPost adds:

Speaking to reporters during a visit to Tokyo, Lieberman said, “This axis of evil that includes North Korea, Syria and Iran, it’s the biggest threat to the entire world – not to Israel, but to the entire world.”

He added that “we saw this kind of cooperation only two or maybe three months ago with the North Korean plane in Bangkok, with huge numbers of different weapons, with the intention to smuggle these weapons to Hamas and Hizbullah.”

On December 12, Thai authorities, acting on a tip from a foreign source, seized a cargo plane in Bangkok full of more than 40 tons of weaponry, including missiles and rocket-propelled grenades. The Thai Air Force said the plane had arrived from Pyongyang.

Rumor has it that in light of Lieberman's comments, President Obama is considering traveling to Pyongyang to bow before North Korea's leaders and to apologize for having such a smug ally.

Heh.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:14 PM