Seoul, June 3 (Reuters): North Korea offered rare praise to President George W. Bush today, saying the US leader addressing the north’s leader as “Mr Kim Jong-il” improved the tone for talks on Pyongyang’s nuclear programmes.

A North Korean foreign ministry spokesman said Bush calling Kim “mister” was a way “of politely addressing our headquarters of revolution”, the official KCNA news agency reported.

The praise for Bush comes a day after the north labelled US vice-president Dick Cheney a “bloodthirsty beast” after he had said Kim Jong-il was irresponsible and runs a police state.

“If Bush’s remarks put an end to the scramble between the hawkish group and the moderate group in the US, which has thrown the Korean policy into a state of confusion, it would help create an atmosphere of the six-party talks,” the spokesman said.