A senior North Korean official in charge of exchanges with South Korea ridiculed a lawmaker of the South's ruling party about his pot belly during an inter-Korean event in Pyongyang last month, participants in the event said.

Ri Son-kwon, chairman of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Country, made the scathing joke about Rep. Kim Tae-nyeon, chief policymaker of the ruling Democratic Party, during the Oct. 5 event marking the 2007 inter-Korean summit.

"Those with a pot belly should not be entrusted with a budget,"

Ri was quoted by participants as saying after a ruling party official introduced Kim to him and said Kim is the party's main official handling the government's budget.

Kim didn't take issue with the taunt, brushing it off as a meaningless drinking joke.

But the remark drew attention following revelations that Ri, who represents the North in high-level talks with the South, made another possibly insulting remark to chiefs of leading South Korean conglomerates during September's inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang.

While members of the South's delegation, including the chaebol chiefs, were having lunch with North Korean officials at Pyongyang's most famous cold noodle restaurant, Ri rebuked the chaebol chiefs, according to an opposition lawmaker.

After one of the business tycoons ordered more cold noodles, Ri was quoted as saying, "Are the cold noodles gliding down your throat?" The remark was an apparent expression of displeasure that inter-Korean economic cooperation is not going well and business chiefs should do more to invest in the North.

A ruling party official said Ri's jokes shouldn't be taken seriously.

"It is unclear whether Ri did make the cold noodle remark, and even if he did, it's difficult to confirm in what context it was made," the official said. "North Koreans often make tough jokes. ... As such blunt jokes can be an expression of friendliness, what's important is the context." (Yonhap)