The Democratic People's Republic of Korea on Thursday strongly criticized the United States' starting of a new round of human rights offensives, accusing the US's act as "throwing a wet blanket on the efforts to resume the six-way talks."

"The US oft-repeated 'human rights' issue is quite contrary to the purport and the agenda of the talks," the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in a commentary, adding that " bringing such issue to the negotiation table will only result in confusing the talks."

The commentary criticized US president Bush's meeting with South Korean daily Chosun Ilbo journalist Kang Chol-hwan, a defector from the north, at the White House on June 15.

"The so-called defectors are just a handful of hooligans and criminals," the commentary said, laughing at Bush's "political level and stature" for his talks about the "human rights situation " in the DPRK with a defector.

"There are American military deserters in the DPRK, too, but we do not use them for a political purpose," the commentary added.

"The US has never skipped an opportunity to assert that it wishes the resumption and progress of the six-party talks and it recognizes the DPRK as a sovereign state, but all the facts go to prove that those assertions are nothing but hypocrisy," the KCNA criticized.

"The human rights piffle again let loose by the US high echelon suggests that Washington is not firm in its stand to recognize the DPRK as its dialogue partner and respect it. This, therefore, cannot be construed as anything other than an act of throwing a wet blanket on the efforts to resume the six-way talks," it added.

Source: Xinhua