NKorea labels SKorean leader 'traitor'

By Alex Jensen

SEOUL (AA) - North Korea accused South Korean President Park Geun-hye of pushing Seoul-Pyongyang ties towards a "catastrophe" Wednesday, following Park's renewed call for the North's denuclearization earlier this week.

The South's leader issued the demand during her Liberation Day speech Monday, marking 71 years since the end of Japanese colonial rule -- but freedom also led to the North-South division of the peninsula along ideological lines.

A spokesman for Pyongyang's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea suggested that Park's speech was an attempt to deflect attention from any domestic discontent.

"Traitor Park should bear in mind that her desperate moves to escape ruin through awful tongue-lashing and reckless confrontation will only precipitate the miserable end of her fate, cursed and censured by all Koreans," the official said in a statement carried by local media.

The North has been developing nuclear weapons and missiles throughout this year in defiance of United Nations resolutions, and South Korea responded to the statement with its own criticism.

"The government strongly condemns North Korea for slandering Park with a vulgar expression," a unification ministry spokesperson told reporters. "North Korea should first face up to the reality that the international community denounces Pyongyang's nuclear and missile provocations."

Park had also dedicated part of her address to defending an incoming American anti-missile system, which has drawn anger from both Pyongyang and South Korean residents concerned about living too close to the battery.