N. Korea slams Oly protest as 'spasm of psychopaths'

North Korea today slammed anti- Pyongyang activists for rallying against its participation in the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, dismissing a dockside protest as a "spasm of psychopaths".

Hundreds of angry South Korean conservatives demonstrated Tuesday as a ship from North Korea carrying around 120 performers arrived at the eastern port of Mukho.

Some carried pictures of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un with a huge X across his face, while others crumpled the images, stamping them underfoot, and burned both a North Korean flag and a unified Korea flag.

They "ran around like headless chickens, barking that ' the ship of reds came, 'go back to your country' and ' boost the south KoreaUS alliance'", Pyongyang's state KCNA news agency said Wednesday.

"Worse still, they made no bones about besmirching the dignity of the DPRK supreme leadership and burning the flags of the DPRK (North Korea) and the Korean Peninsula", it said.

Any insult to the ruling Kim dynasty always provokes the North's ire.

"They are no more than a group of benighted gangsters inferior to beast," KCNA said, adding that the protestors were "human scum".

The performers spent the night on board the vessel and did not emerge until Wednesday, when they marched off in red coats and were bussed to the Gangneung venue for a rehearsal.