North Korea on Wednesday continued its verbal assault on South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, who arrived in the United States on Tuesday.

The Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of North Korea's Workers' Party, accused Lee of trying to win the favor of foreign powers while making what it called "absurd demands" for Pyongyang to denuclearize and open up.

The paper charged that the South Korean leader's North Korea policy was only imitating the U.S. conservative hardliners' "hostile policy" toward the North. It added that Lee should learn a lesson from the Bush administration's decision to come to the negotiating table.

However, the paper did not mention Lee's visits to the United States and Japan over the next week.