'An imbecile in diplomacy.' Lieberman
Photo: Gil Yohanan
North Korea: Lieberman an imbecile
Pariah state denies Israeli allegations of involvement in spread of weapons of mass destruction to Syria, Iran; foreign minister 'ultra-rightist', Jewish State making up 'sheer lies,' Pyongyang says
North Korea Saturday blasted Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman as
an "imbecile" and denied his claims that it was supplying Iran
and Syria
with weapons technology.
Lieberman, in a visit to Japan Wednesday, accused the North of creating a world-threatening "axis of evil" with the two Middle Eastern countries.
He mentioned the seizure in Bangkok in December of arms from North Korea "with huge numbers of different weapons with the intention of smuggling these weapons to Hamas and to Hezbollah," the Islamist and Shiite movements.
Lieberman also alleged the North was giving "crucial" assistance to Iranian and Syrian missile programs.
A spokesman for Pyongyang's Foreign Ministry described Lieberman as an "ultra-rightist" and "an imbecile in diplomacy".
The spokesman, quoted by the North's official news agency, said Israel was itself being criticized for its nuclear program and the expansion of settlements in the West Bank. He also said it would never pardon Israel for "daring slander the dignified (North) by faking up sheer lies."
The North "has nothing to do with any spread of WMDs" (weapons of mass destruction)," the spokesman said.
In 2008 the United States accused North Korea of helping Syria to build a nuclear reactor destroyed in an Israeli bombing raid the previous year.
