Pyongyang, North Korea ? North Korea criticized the United States’ top envoy to Seoul for making provocative remarks about the communist country, calling the ambassador a “tyrant,” a news report said Sunday.

U.S. Ambassador Alexander Vershbow labeled the North a “criminal regime” this month, citing Pyongyang’s alleged arms dealing, money laundering and counterfeiting.

Since then, North Korea has repeatedly called on the South to expel Vershbow for slandering the North.

“It is clear (Vershbow) is a tyrant wearing the mask of a diplomat,” the North’s Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in a commentary Sunday, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.

U.S. allegations of the North’s counterfeiting have been a major obstacle to the resumption of six-way talks on Pyongyang’s nuclear arms program. North Korea has dismissed the allegations as lies and threatened to boycott the talks with the U.S., South Korea, China, Japan and Russia unless Washington lifts financial sanctions.