President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un took some time off from exchanging barbs, but it couldn’t last forever. On New Year’s Day, Kim Jong-un taunted the U.S. president with his nuclear button, which he claimed placed the entire U.S. mainland within reach. To which Trump responded that his button was “bigger & more powerful,” not to mention operational (it’s not). Well, North Korea didn’t respond immediately (perhaps they were letting Trump twist in the wind, so to speak) but is now delivering the much-awaited insult.
The Associated Press reports that Rodong Sinmun, the official paper of North Korea’s ruling party, used two of Trump’s favorite words — “loser” and “lunatic” — to slam the U.S. president:
“Trump’s bluff is regarded by the [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] as just a spasm of a lunatic frightened by the might of Juche Korea and a bark of a rabid dog.
“The spasm of Trump in the new year reflects the desperate mental state of a loser who failed to check the vigorous advance of the army and people of the DPRK. He is making (a) bluff only to be diagnosed as a psychopath.”
No doubt, we’ll see some sort of response from Trump, most likely through his Twitter account, where he often mocks Kim Jong-un as “Rocket Man,” but there’s a slight chance that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson might be called upon to clean up the mess with official-sounding rhetoric. One thing is certain, however … Trump’s “fire and fury” threat against North Korea won’t happen again, at least, not with those particular words. Folks can thank author Michael Wolff for ruining that term for the president.
(Via Associated Press & Washington Post)