September 27, 2003, 10:49 AM CDT

SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea called U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld a "psychopath" and a "stupid man" on Saturday, denouncing him for predicting that the country's isolated communist regime will one day fall.

Speaking before a group of U.S. and South Korean businessmen, Rumsfeld said last week that freedom will eventually come and "light up that oppressed land with hope and with promise," casting aside the dictatorship that has ruled the North for more than half a century.

North Korea, whose media regularly churn out anti-American vituperations, is especially thin-skinned when outsiders attack its political leadership.