North Korean officials have criticized the Japanese Prime Minister as "an idiot and a villain" after Tokyo protested a test of Pyongyang's rocket artillery.

"Abe is a fool and a villain grumbling about the test of a super-large Korean jet cannon as if a nuclear bomb had just been thrown into Japanese territory. He is best not to dream of coming to Pyongyang. by repeatedly criticizing North Korea's safeguard measures, "North Korea's news agency KCNA quoted Song Il Ho, the ambassador in charge of normalizing relations with Japan, yesterday.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe condemned the North's test of a jet rocket during the East Asia Summit in Thailand earlier this week, calling it a violation of UN Security Council resolutions.

North Korean officials' remarks could be a big step back in Japan's efforts to solve the Japanese abduction issue by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. He repeatedly expressed his willingness to go to Pyongyang and meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un unconditionally to resolve the issue.

North Korea in 2002 admitted kidnapping 13 Japanese nationals, of which 5 were released and 8 died. Tokyo claimed the number of its citizens abducted by Pyongyang was 17, arguing that some were still being held in North Korea.