In an unusual Foreign Ministry statement, North Korea denounced the United States for conducting a disinformation campaign portraying the regime as unstable.

"The system in the DPRK (North Korea) is politically stable and is as firm as a rock," the statement, carried by the official Korean Central News Agency, said.

"The smear campaign on the part of the hostile forces aimed at the collapse of the system in the DPRK is nothing but a desperate last-ditch effort to destroy the system under which the leader, the party and the popular masses form a harmonious whole.

"It is as foolish an act as trying to get the sun eclipsed by a palm."

More than five decades after the founding of the North Korean state, analysts and media reports have recently spoken of cracks appearing in the facade of the world's most tightly controlled regime.

Pictures of leader Kim Jong-Il have reportedly gone missing and anti-government posters and flyers have appeared in some places.

In one of the more serious signs, the New York Times, citing a magazine editor in South Korea, reported last month that 130 generals had defected to China in recent years.

The foreign ministry statement, taking issue with the US "reptile media and riff-raff," specifically denied the New York Times report and said it was part of the US smear campaign to bring the country down.

"The US false propaganda and psychological operation aimed to slander the DPRK and finally realize a regime change there have, in actuality, gone beyond the tolerance limit," it said.

The statement said the US campaign was forcing North Korea to consider whether to continue participating in the dialogue to resolve the long-standing dispute over its drive for nuclear weapons.

"Under this situation the DPRK is compelled to seriously reconsider its participation in the talks with the US, a party extremely disgusting and hateful," the statement said.

Efforts to end North Korea's nuclear weapons ambitions have stalled after three rounds of talks between the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States in Beijing. Pyongyang boycotted the last round in September.

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