N Korea tells US to rein in Bond

In a rare challenge to Hollywood, Communist N Korea called on the US to stop screening Die Another Day, saying that the 20th Bond movie slanders the Communist state and defames the Korean people.

The MGM hit proves that the US is an ‘‘empire of evil’’ and ‘‘the headquarters that spread abnormality, degeneration, violence and … corrupt sex culture,’’ North Korea’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland said.

The committee made the comments in a statement carried by the North’s official news agency, KCNA. In the movie, Bond, allied with South Korean operative, is sent to intercept an illegal arms deal between a South African diamond smuggler and a North Korean officer, Colonel Moon, feared to be planning an invasion of South Korea and then Japan.