North Korea has rejected President Lee Myung-bak’s proposal to open liaison offices in Seoul and Pyongyang.

The Rodong Sinmun, the North Korean Workers' Party daily, called the idea outdated and anti-unification. The paper claimed that Lee was trying to avoid responsibilities for worsening inter-Korean relations and distract the South Korean public.

Lee proposed that South and North Korea establish liaison offices in Seoul and Pyongyang in an interview with the U.S. daily Washington Post last week while visiting the United States.

The North Korean daily claimed that the idea of liaison offices proposed by previous South Korean administrations was already discarded because it was a scheme to make the territorial division permanent.

The report accused Lee of making anti-North Korean policies as soon as he took office with U.S. on his back and reversed progress between the two Koreas made since the historic inter-Korean summit on June 15th, 2000. The daily claimed that, as a result, tension rose on the Korean Peninsula and the inter-Korean ties were on the verge of rupture.

The paper also unleashed personal attacks on the South Korean president, calling him an ignorant, blockheaded and sleepwalking politician.