N. Korea slams 'master-servant' Obama-Park summit

SEOUL (AFP) - South Korean President Park Geun Hye's recent summit with Barack Obama was a "despicable" meeting of servant and master, North Korea said on Friday in its first reaction to the talks in Washington.

In a highly personal warning, a spokesman for the state body responsible for inter-Korean ties said Ms Park would do well to remember the "miserable end" met by her pro-US father, the late dictator Park Chung Hee.

Mr Park Chung Hee, who ruled South Korea with an iron fist from 1961-79, was assassinated by his national intelligence chief.

Ms Park's May 6-9 trip to the United States, which included a summit with the US president, was widely viewed as a success, with the two leaders united in a vow of offering no concessions in dealing with Pyongyang.

Ms Park also addressed a joint session of the US Congress on Wednesday, stressing that North Korea had to give up its nuclear weapons while also proposing small peace steps after months of sky-high tensions.

But the spokesman for the North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, dismissed the visit as a "junket" and a "despicable sycophantic trip to please her master ... and tighten the nexus against" North Korea.

Ms Park's "arrogant" remarks would only escalate inter-Korean tensions, he said, adding that the presidential summit was a "curtain-raiser" for an eventual invasion of North Korea.

The spokesman did not comment on Ms Park's proposal for an international peace park inside the Demilitarised Zone that separates the two Koreas.

The North, angered by UN sanctions sparked by its nuclear test in February and joint South-US military drills, has stoked tensions for months with blistering threats of nuclear war against Seoul and Washington.

But friction has appeared to ebb in the past week, with a US defence official saying that North Korea has moved two medium-range missiles off their launch sites.

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