North Korea on Tuesday denounced President Donald Trump’s tweeted message that he has a bigger nuclear button than its leader Kim Jong-Un as the “spasm of a lunatic” and the “bark of a rabid dog”.
Mr. Kim used his annual New Year address to warn he has a “nuclear button” on his table, sweetening his remarks by expressing an interest in dialogue and taking part in the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in South Korea next month. In response, Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter: “Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!”
In Pyongyang’s first reaction to the tweet, the North’s official party newspaper Rodong Sinmun on Tuesday dismissed Mr. Trump’s “swaggering” as nothing but the “spasm of a lunatic” frightened by North Korea’s power, and the “bark of a rabid dog”.
Bonhomie over games
In the days after Mr. Kim’s New Year speech the two Koreas underwent a rapid apparent rapprochement, culminating last week in their first official talks for two years, when they agreed Pyongyang would attend the Winter Olympics Games.
Mr. Trump’s rhetoric towards the North, has sparked criticism that he is ratcheting up tensions on the Korean peninsula.
