S Korea raps North for calling President Park 'crazy b****'

Seoul - South Korea urged North Korea Sunday to stop its "vulgar" personal attacks on President Park Geun-Hye after Pyongyang described her as a "crazy old b****" in its latest diatribe.

"We express strong regret over... the North's personal attacks that targeted our head of state with such base, vulgar language," Seoul's unification ministry which handles cross-border affairs said in a statement.

"The North should... immediately stop such vulgar attacks."

Rodong Sinmun, newspaper of the North's ruling communist party, earlier Sunday slammed the South's conservative leader for seeking stronger sanctions against Pyongyang following its nuclear and missile tests.

Headlines in the full-page coverage described Park, 64, as a "murderous devil" and "senile old woman" seeking to topple the North's government with her recent moves to punish Pyongyang.

"This tailless crazy old b**** called Park Geun-Hye is heaping further misery on our people, already suffering from the tragedy of division," one article said.

The North earlier this month launched a satellite into orbit in what many saw as a disguised test of a long-range ballistic missile banned under UN resolutions.

The widely-condemned launch, following Pyongyang's fourth nuclear test in January, sharply raised tension and prompted Park to close a joint inter-Korea industrial zone as a reprisal.

The Kaesong estate in the North, where 126 Seoul firms operated factories that employed 54,000 North Koreans, had been considered a precious source of hard currency for the impoverished North since its opening in 2004.

One of the Rodong articles also castigated Park as the "dumbest of the dumb" for inflicting what it called massive financial damage on Seoul firms with the shock closure.

"This invalid, morally depraved human being... never showed any goodwill for other human beings as well as her people," it said.

The North has habitually mounted colourful and highly sexist personal attacks on Park, who has taken a tough stance towards the North.

It earlier likened her to a "peasant woman babbling to herself in the corner of her room" or a "prostitute" eager to please US President Barack Obama, the leader of the South's major military ally.