North Korea on Thursday lashed out at a South Korean presidential contender for an alleged insult to its dignity, sparing no flak for the son of a prominent businessman who pioneered lucrative projects with the North.

In a comment posted on the North's propaganda Web site Uriminzokkiri, the communist regime heaped criticism on Rep. Chung Mong-joon of the South's ruling Saenuri Party for challenging North Korea's hereditary transfer of power and raising the possibility of further military provocations by the North.

Chung, who recently declared his presidential bid, told a news conference in Seoul Sunday that he believes there are high chances of fresh North Korean provocations and that the country could carry out its third nuclear test "at any time."

Chung "uttered ludicrous statements that viciously slandered our dignity and regime," said the comment on Uriminzokkiri.

It also accused the lawmaker of "blocking the path to national economic cooperation" promoted by his late father and founder of Hyundai Group, Chung Ju-yung. Hyundai has been in the vanguard of inter-Korean business projects since the late Chung crossed the heavily-armed Demilitarized Zone into the North in 1998 with truckloads of cows.

North Korea has made it an exception until now to regard the Chung family in high esteem. The online comment, however, called the presidential contender a "political crook" and a "profligate"

for allegedly being bent on attaining power.

Hyundai operates a joint industrial complex in the North Korean border city of Kaesong, where more than 50,000 North Koreans work for 123 South Korean firms to produce clothes, utensils, watches and other goods. The project serves as a key legitimate cash cow for the impoverished communist country.

The late Chung also initiated a sightseeing tour to scenic Mount Kumgang on the North's east coast. Seoul halted the joint tour program in 2008 following the shooting death of a South Korean tourist near the mountain resort.

Chung Ju-yung died on March 21, 2001. (Yonhap News)