SEOUL, August 6 (AFP): US President George W. Bush chided China and North Korea Wednesday on their human rights records but defended his decision to attend this week's Beijing Olympics opening ceremony.
The US leader, in a strong message to North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il, said Kim would continue to lead "the most sanctioned regime in the world" unless he honours nuclear disarmament commitments.
Bush said it was premature to drop the communist North from the "axis of evil" he had proclaimed back in 2002.
He was speaking at a press conference after summit talks with South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak.
Bush has been accused of overlooking China's rights record with his decision to attend Friday's Games opening. But he said he did not need the Olympic issue to express his views on religious and other freedoms.
"I have been meeting Chinese leaders for 7 1/2 years and my message has been the same: you should not fear religious people in your society," Bush said.
Bush said China's leaders "ought to welcome people being able to express their minds, and to the extent that people aren't able to do that and people aren't able to worship freely, (it) is a mistake."
The Games, he said, is an athletics event. "But it's also an opportunity to say to the Chinese people, we respect your traditions, we respect your history."
Bush, under fire from domestic critics who say he has conceded too much to Pyongyang, reserved his strongest words for North Korea.
"I'm concerned about North Korea's human rights record, I'm concerned about its uranium enrichment activities as well as its nuclear testing and proliferation and its ballistic missile programmes," he said.
