WASHINGTON – Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday brought up the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy while defending her decision to stay in the race against Barack Obama – drawing a furious reaction from the front-runner’s camp.

“My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. I don’t understand it,” she said, dismissing calls to drop out.

Clinton made her comments at a meeting with the editorial board of the Sioux Falls Argus Leader, a paper in South Dakota. She is campaigning in the state ahead of its June 3 primary.

During the session, she complained, “People have been trying to push me out of this ever since Iowa.”

The Post on its Web site yesterday published the first story containing the extraordinary comments, based on a Web cast of Clinton’s interview.

Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton rebuked Clinton, saying her remark was “unfortunate and has no place in this campaign.”

Any comments about assassination and the primary contest are especially sensitive because Obama is the first African-American to advance so far in the race for the White House and he has faced threats, congressional sources have said.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, who has already expressed anger toward Clinton during the race, planned to spend his rally today at his Harlem-based National Action Network addressing “a sense of outrage and dismay at statements made by” the New York senator, according to his office.

Secret Service protection was given to Obama earlier than it had ever been authorized for a presidential candidate, and he always travels with a heavy security detail.

Robert Kennedy, the younger brother of President John F. Kennedy, was gunned down in 1968 after winning California’s Democratic presidential primary.

The New York senator had been a hero of the left for his civil-rights agenda and his calls to end the Vietnam War.

Clinton spokesman Mo Elleithee said Hillary was citing “historical examples” of long primary races, and that “any reading into it beyond that would be inaccurate and outrageous.”

But by late yesterday afternoon, Clinton issued an apology that mentioned the brain-cancer diagnosis this week of Ted Kennedy, RFK’s brother.

“The Kennedys have been much on my mind the last days because of Senator [Ted] Kennedy and I regret that if my referencing that moment of trauma for our entire nation, and particularly for the Kennedy family, was in any way offensive. I certainly had no intention of that, whatsoever.

“My view is that we have to look to the past and to our leaders who have inspired us and give us a lot to live up to, and I’m honored to hold Senator [Robert] Kennedy’s seat in the United States Senate from the state of New York and have the highest regard for the entire Kennedy family,” she added.

Robert Kennedy Jr., a Clinton supporter, said, “I’ve heard her make this reference before . . . I understand that the atmosphere is supercharged right now but I think it’s a mistake for people to take offense.”

Clinton made a similar statement in a Time magazine interview in March.

Debra Kozikowski, an uncommitted superdelegate from Sen. Ted Kennedy’s home state of Massachusetts, fumed as she called the comment “inappropriate,” especially given what’s happened with the Kennedy family in the past week.

“She must need sleep, is all I can say,” she told The Post. “I can’t think of any reason why anyone would say anything that insensitive. And that apology was a non-apology.”

Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, a close Obama ally, however, said he accepted Clinton’s explanation.

“I know Hillary Clinton, and the last thing in the world she’d ever want is to wish misfortune on anybody. She and Barack are friends,” Durbin said. “It was . . . a careless remark and we’ll leave it at that.”