Vice President Dick Cheney very appropriately takes a shot at Kim Jong II:

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Vice President Richard Cheney launched a personal attack on North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, calling him an irresponsible leader who "doesn't take care" of his people as he strives for nuclear power status for his country.

The comments, made in an interview with CNN's "Larry King Live" program due to be aired late Monday, marked an escalation of US rhetoric toward Pyongyang as the administration of President George W. Bush is stepping up diplomatic pressure to make Pyongyang return to six-party talks focused on North Korea's nuclear ambitions.

A Russian delegation that returned from Pyongyang earlier this month said North Koreans want the Bush administration to apologize for publicly branding Kim a "tyrant" and their country "an outpost of tyranny."

But according to excerpts of the interview released by the TV channel, Cheney made clear Pyongyang should not expect any softening of the US tone, let alone an apology.

"I am concerned about it," Cheney said of the stalled negotiations, "Partly because ... Kim Jong Il, who's the leader of North Korea, is -- I would describe as one of the world's more irresponsible leaders."

The vice president accused Kim of running "a police state" and one of the most heavily militarized societies in the world while the bulk of the North Korean population lived "in abject poverty and stages of malnutrition."

"He doesn't take care of his people at all," Cheney continued. "And he obviously wants to throw his weight around and become a nuclear power."

The little tyrant who imprisons his people at will for the slightest transgressions, presides over a ruinous economy that he continually makes worse, and is determined to put himself in a position where he can use nuclear blackmail to achieve his aims, deserves every word - and then some - that the vice president uttered.