Sticks and Stones (and Plutonium)

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Nobody quite knows if North Korea is gearing up to test nuclear weapons, but there's no doubting its arsenal of insults for its nemesis, the United States. Pyongyang blasted George W. Bush in a newspaper editorial last week, calling the U.S. President "a first-class war maniac." A top Chinese Foreign Ministry official said the diplomatic taunts, particularly Bush's April comment calling North Korea's Kim Jong Il a "tyrant," had "destroyed the atmosphere" for productive negotiations. But this war of words has been escalating for years:

2001: Bush says Kim has failed to keep a promise to freeze North Korea's nuclear program. A North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman replies that America's new President is "worrying about others when he can't wipe his own nose."

2002: Bush tars North Korea as a member of the "axis of evil" along with Iran and Iraq in his first State of the Union speech. North Korea calls the remark "tantamount to a declaration of war."

2003: The then Under Secretary of State John Bolton calls Kim a "tyrannical dictator" whose people's lives are a "hellish nightmare." Pyongyang dubs Bolton a "bloodsucker" and "human scum."

Jan. 18, 2005: At her Senate confirmation hearing to become Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice calls the North an "outpost of tyranny." North Korea pulls out of the six-nations talks, saying it would return only "if there are mature conditions."

April 28, 2005: At a press conference, Bush calls Kim Jong Il a "tyrant" and a "dangerous person ... who starves his people." Pyongyang's riposte: the President is a "philistine" and a "hooligan bereft of any personality."

May 10, 2005: After the U.S. warns North Korea not to carry out a nuclear test, the state-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper declares: "Bush is the world's worst fascist dictator"; and dubs him "Hitler junior."