North Korea has today described the United States as "the empire of the devil" in a further response to comments made by President Bush.
Mr Bush had described North Korea, Iraq and Iran as an "axis of evil" that was developing weapons of mass destruction.
Pyongyang had already condemned Mr Bush's remarks, made during his annual State of the Union address last week, as being tantamount to a declaration of war.
The official KCNA news agency today said Mr Bush's proposed defence budget increase for next year showed Washington wanted to flex its military muscles and was using arguments about threats from North Korea and others as a pretext.
"The US loud-mouthed threat from somebody is a crafty trick to justify its increased military expenditure, KCNA said.
The agency said the United States already had the largest number of weapons of mass destruction in the world and wanted more.
"This clearly proves that the United States, 'empire of [the] devil', is posing a grave threat to world peace and stability," the agency said in its English-language report.
The proposed $48 billion US defence spending increase would be the largest in two decades.
