One Of North Koreas Toughest Critics

North Korea blasted President Bush's appointment of Undersecretary of State John Bolton, one of the toughest critics of Pyongyang, as new U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, saying he would only raise tensions in the international community. "The most undesirable person was named U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, thus raising tension in the United Nations and international community," said Choson Sinbo, the newspaper run by a Pyongyang-aligned organization of ethnic Korean residents in Japan. "Bolton's speaking style is so violent the North has labeled him as human scum," said the paper, considered a mouthpiece of the communist regime in Pyongyang. "He is the worst UN envoy," it declared. Bolton took a vehement stand against North Korea when he was serving as undersecretary of state for arms control. He once described North Korea's leader Kim Jong-Il as "tyrannical" and called the life in the Stalinist state a "hellish nightmare." Bolton also blasted North Korea as "the world's foremost peddler of ballistic missile-related equipment, components, materials and technical expertise," saying the Bush administration would push for the UN Security Council to urge North Korea to drop its nuclear programs. North Korea, in return, referred to Bolton as "human scum" and a "bloodsucker." John R. Bolton