Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) accused Rice, who called North Korea a "completely irresponsible" and "dangerous" state for test-firing seven ballistic missiles on July 5, of distorting the facts.

"Obviously, Rice made such an outcry in a bid to justify the US hostile policy to pressurize the DPRK," KCNA said, referring to the country by the acronym for its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

"Her remarks are nothing but a sheer distortion of the reality which can convince no one," the agency said in a commentary.

"This cannot be construed otherwise than an outburst made by a political imbecile."

Rice and her North Korean counterpart Paek Nam-Sun are due to attend the ASEAN Regional Forum in Kuala Lumpur later this week, amid rising international tensions over Pyongyang's missile tests.

Their scheduled attendance has raised hopes for a sideline meeting between the six nations involved in stalled talks to end a standoff over North Korea's nuclear weapons drive.

The talks ground to a halt in November over Pyongyang's objections to financial sanctions imposed by Washington.

The North's test-firing of the seven missiles, all of which splashed down in the Sea of Japan (East Sea), earned an unanimous rebuke from the United Nations Security Council -- one immediately rejected by Pyongyang.

The secretive communist state on Monday rejected Rice's claims that its tests had been reckless, with KCNA saying it had "launched missiles only after airspace, land and waters of the sea had been confirmed to be completely safe".

The tests "hurt neither ships nor civilian planes nor anyone," the agency said. "This fact was admitted even by the neighboring countries."

Referring to US President George W. Bush's inclusion of North Korea as part of an "axis of evil" along with Iraq and Iran, the North countered: "The Bush administration is made up of the worst gangsters in the world."

It accused Washington of stoking tensions in the region "in collusion with Japan," which imposed a raft of sanctions against Pyongyang following the missile tests.

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