North Korea's official media has insulted South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak some 1700 times — about 10 times a day on average — so far this year, a Seoul official said in an article seen Monday.

The figure, as of 22 June, compares with an average of eight daily attacks last year, said Lee Chan-Ho, a chief analyst with the unification ministry which handles cross-border ties.

Relations have worsened sharply since President Lee took office in February 2008 and rolled back the "sunshine" aid and engagement policy of his liberal predecessors.

He vowed to link major economic aid to progress in nuclear disarmament, a stance which enraged the communist North.

"Some of the epithets North Korea used to refer to President Lee are so blatant that I can't even quote them here," said Lee in his article in the July edition of the National Defense Journal.

Lee said the North is trying to unite the people "by exaggerating the threat of its enemy, just as it manipulated danger from an enemy when it went ahead with its nuclear test.

"It is also aimed at pressing our government to change its stance by fuelling divisions in South Korean society," he wrote.

Even though the North has denigrated previous South Korean leaders, its attacks on the current one are the most frequent and "sometimes downright silly," the analyst wrote.

As of mid-morning Monday, the North's official Korean Central News Agency had already referred to Lee as a fascist, the leader of a "group of traitors" and a dictator.

AFP

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